Food retailing, now and in the future: a consumer perspective

Abstract

Some predict that electronic shopping will account for 15–20% of the retail market by 2004, others hold a more conservative opinion. The objective of this study is two-fold. A first question pertains to how consumers perceive current grocery shopping. A second question deals with the consumers’ preferred future grocery shopping alternative. The results of a qualitative study show that on the one hand, consumers are not fond of the way they do grocery shopping at the moment. On the other hand, consumers seem to prefer that retail stores evolve in retailing superstores, rather than choosing for the more revolutionary alternative of online shopping which indicates that the predictions of the future success of online retailing may be inflated and that the experiential aspect of high-touch products such as groceries should not be underestimated.