International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management

Web content analysis of e-grocery retailers: a longitudinal study

Heejin Lim Richard Widdows Neal H. Hooker
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To cite this document:
Heejin Lim Richard Widdows Neal H. Hooker, (2009),"Web content analysis of e-grocery retailers: a
longitudinal study", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 37 Iss 10 pp. 839 - 851
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(2000),"Consumer response to online grocery shopping", International Journal of Retail & Distribution
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(2009),"Online grocery shopping: the influence of situational factors", European Journal of Marketing, Vol.
43 Iss 9/10 pp. 1205-1219 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560910976447
(2005),"Online grocery retailing: what do consumers think?", Internet Research, Vol. 15 Iss 3 pp. 335-352
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Web content analysis of e-grocery Web content

analysis of
retailers: a longitudinal study e-grocery retailers
Heejin Lim
Department of Retail, Tourism and Hospitality Management, 839
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Richard Widdows Received 15 August 2007
Revised 22 July 2008
Department of Consumer Sciences and Retailing, Purdue University, Accepted 6 October 2008
West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, and
Neal H. Hooker
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Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics,

The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how e-grocers develop their e-fulfillment
strategies to satisfy product-specific customer needs for their grocery shopping on the internet. Findings
from this paper are used to propose sustainable e-fulfillment strategies for online grocery retailers.
Design/methodology/approach – Based on metrics of product information, customer service and
e-business quality, this paper conducted web content analyses of US grocery retailers in a longitudinal
manner.
Findings – The research findings delineate a significant transition of e-fulfillment strategies among
grocery retailers. Evidence is found for the development of service metrics as well as strategic shifts in
retail operations.
Originality/value – The use of a longitudinal approach provides insights into sustainable marketing
strategies for online retailers to enhance consumers’ perceived relative advantage and compatibility,
and reduce perceived complexity in online grocery shopping.
Keywords Electronic commerce, Internet, Retailing
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
An ever-increasing growth of online retail sales demonstrates consumer enthusiasm for
the online shopping channel, and highlights the importance of the internet for
marketers. Between 2000 and 2006, online retail sales increased annually by 24-35
percent, while total retail sales increased by only 2.4-7.4 percent over the same period
(Grau, 2006). In contrast to the overall success of online retailing, the online grocery
retailing market has witnessed some failures (e.g. Webvan) as well as the abandonment
of online transactions by traditional brick-and-mortar grocers (e.g. Albertsons).
Nevertheless, more and more traditional grocery retailers have entered the online International Journal of Retail &
market in recent years, in the anticipation that the convenience of online ordering and Distribution Management
Vol. 37 No. 10, 2009
home delivery as one fulfillment option will make the internet a profitable and pp. 839-851
complementary market channel. Indeed, the industry has observed the successful q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0959-0552
development of internet-pure players such as freshdirect.com and simondelivers.com DOI 10.1108/09590550910988020
 IJRDM Such mixed results by online grocery retailing present research challenges in
37,10 examining the determinants of successful e-fulfillment strategies for this sector.
Verhoef and Langerak (2001) argued that supermarket shopping is different from
shopping in other retail formats such as department stores because of the level of
consumers’ involvement, enjoyment, and frequency of shopping. Another difference is
consumers’ preference for buying grocery products through sensory examinations.
840 When consumers purchase a grocery product, they greatly depend upon sensory
examinations such as touching, smelling, and feeling to determine the freshness or
appropriateness of the product. Uncertainty about product quality remains a main
inhibitor for consumers to go online for their grocery shopping (Raijas, 2002). As a
result, online grocery retailing appears to be still in its infancy. Only 3 percent of US
consumers reported that they experimented with online grocery purchasing in 2003
(Lim et al., 2004).
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Nonetheless, findings from a longitudinal study of online grocery shoppers’

preferences and behavior (Morganosky and Cude, 2002) show that US consumers are
willing to buy grocery products on the internet. In this study, Morganosky and Cude
(2002) surveyed US consumers who had already experienced grocery shopping online
at three different times and revealed a noticeable increase in consumers’ willingness to
buy grocery products, including perishable items such as meats and fresh produce.
Their findings confirm that convenience surpasses perceived risk once consumers
have experienced online grocery shopping.
Given a relatively lower adoption rate of online grocery shopping, electronic grocery
shopping is considered a service innovation to US consumers. The literature of
innovation states that the success of innovative products and services relies on
perceived characteristics of the innovation such as relative advantage, compatibility,
complexity, divisibility, and communicability (Rogers, 1983). In the context of online
grocery shopping, Verhoef and Langerak (2001) suggested that consumers’ perceptions
of relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity can occur at the pre-purchase
stage while those of divisibility and communicability occur at the post-purchase stage.
Their empirical investigation confirmed that the first three characteristics of the
innovation had significant effects on consumers’ intention to adopt online grocery
shopping.
In brief, previous studies showed an increase in consumers’ demand for online
grocery shopping despite the distinct nature of grocery shopping that requires sensory
examinations and a guaranteed delivery of freshness (Morganosky and Cude, 2002).
Accordingly, this study attempts to go one step further and investigate how e-grocers
develop their e-fulfillment strategies to satisfy product-specific customer needs for their
grocery shopping on the internet. To achieve this purpose, web content analyses of
e-grocers are employed. Web content analysis is a technique that enables researchers to
analyze the configuration of a retailer’s e-fulfillment strategies. This technique has been
used for emerging online services such as the health sector (Macias and Lewis, 2003)
and for specific product categories with distinct retailing strategies such as apparel
retailing (Park and Stoel, 2002).
In this study, web contents of e-grocery sites were evaluated based on three metrics;
product information quality, customer service quality, and e-business quality. It is
argued that these items potentially might affect consumers’ perception of relative
advantage, compatibility and complexity of online grocery retailers’ web sites
 (Verhoef and Langerak, 2001). Use of web content analyses of e-fulfillment operations Web content
can illustrate a broad range of retail strategies employed by a firm. analysis of
This study is longitudinal in nature. Web site development is not a one-time, static
effort. Retailers need to change their web configuration in response to technical e-grocery retailers
innovation as well as consumers’ changing needs and demands. Based on an evaluation
of e-grocers’ e-fulfillment strategies and a longitudinal trend in this sector, findings
from this study are used to propose sustainable e-fulfillment models for online grocery 841
retailers.

Adoption of innovation
The adoption rate of an innovation depends on consumers’ perceptions of relative
advantage, compatibility, complexity, divisibility and communicability of the
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innovation. This study is interested in the effectiveness of e-grocers’ web content in

delivering relative advantage, compatibility and complexity that might affect
consumers’ perceptions and behavioral intention at a pre-purchase stage. Robertson
(1967) developed an innovation classification scheme including three types of
innovation: continuous, dynamically continuous, and discontinuous. While continuous
innovation involves a basic extension of an existing product (for example, a plasma
TV), discontinuous innovation requires a significant change in consumers’ behavioral
patterns as with mobile phones. Since online purchases of certain grocery products,
especially fresh produce and meats, are significantly different from buying those items
in a physical store, online grocery shopping is considered as a discontinuous innovation
(Robinson et al., 2007).
Anderson and Ortinau (1988) argued that marketing strategies for a discontinuous
innovation should be developed to overcome consumers’ reluctance to adopt the
innovation and generate new consumption patterns for consumers. Given that
the biggest motivation of consumers’ online grocery shopping is convenience and time
saving (Morganosky and Cude, 2002), grocery retailers need to develop their web
configuration to enhance consumers’ perceptions of relative advantage and
compatibility in shopping grocery products and reduce perceived complexity in
searching and ordering grocery products online. In the context of online grocery
shopping, Verhoef and Langerak (2001) identified relative advantage to be consumers’
perception of superiority of online grocery shopping to in-store shopping. Compatibility
is represented by consumers’ perception as to whether grocery shopping satisfies their
shopping needs. Complexity is perceived difficulty in shopping for grocery products on
the internet.
On the internet, effective presentation of sensory attributes appears to be a key
factor that can reduce consumers’ perceived risk and affect consumers’ perceived
compatibility. Therefore, product information quality is examined for its potential
influences on consumers’ perceived compatibility. In addition, we examine customer
service quality on e-grocers’ web sites as determinants of consumers’ perceived relative
advantage that enhances convenience of grocery shopping online. A previous study
shows that perceptions of consumers’ shopping experience on the internet can be
enhanced by ease of use of a retailer’s web site (Yoo and Donthu, 2001). Thus,
e-business quality is investigated as a measure of consumers’ perceived complexity of
an e-grocer’s web site.
 IJRDM Measures of e-grocers’ web content quality
37,10 A retailer’s web site is a place that facilitates a customer’s shopping experience
through all phases of the shopping process including pre-purchase, purchase, and
post-purchase stages. Customers perceive and evaluate a retailer’s service provision in
each stage of the purchase experience. Thus, effective design of web sites is essential in
order to generate positive customer experiences in the computer-mediated
842 environment. Previous studies attempted to investigate the importance of attributes
that affect consumers’ attitudes and behavioral intention in the online marketplace
(Wolfinbargar and Gilly, 2003; Yoo and Donthu, 2001).

Product information quality

In the electronic environment, consumers’ shopping experience is influenced heavily
by the information presented on a retailer’s web site and physical intangibility appears
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to increase consumers’ perceived risk in online purchasing (Laroche et al., 2005). Thus,
a key determinant of success in e-retailing lies in how to satisfy consumers’ desire for
physical examinations of goods and interaction with the retailer. Klein (1998) argued
that perceived tangibility can be enhanced on the internet by transforming experience
attributes of products/services to search attributes. That is, provision of full
information on important product/service attributes can help customers experience the
product/service indirectly at the pre-purchase stage. The importance of product
information quality has been demonstrated in the findings of previous studies, which
show effects of information quality on customer satisfaction (Szymanski and Hise,
2000; Yang et al., 2000) and the success of web sites (Liu and Arnett, 2000). For
searching goods such as books and computer software, customers can identify all
salient product attributes prior to purchase by simply screening digital information (i.e.
picture and text). Grocery products, however, have strong experiential (or even
credence) dimensions (Caswell and Mojduszka, 1996). Therefore, e-grocers’ web sites
need to deliver quality signals for their products to customers by providing full
information such as nutritional quality and origin of produce.

Customer service quality

Customer service is “responsive, helpful, willing service that responds to customer
enquiries quickly.” (Wolfinbargar and Gilly, 2003, p. 193). Zeithaml (2002) suggested
that customer service in e-commerce involves responsiveness, compensation, and
contact. Previous studies demonstrate the positive effect of salespeople’s performance
on customers’ satisfaction (Grewal and Sharma, 1991). In the electronic marketplace,
however, such a physical interaction between a customer and a company is restricted.
Nonetheless, online customers can receive various forms of support from an e-tailer
through a call center or an electronic form to submit an inquiry (Lim and Dubinsky,
2004). Web configuration of customer service cues appears to affect online customers’
perceptions of overall site quality, attitude toward online purchasing and the web site
and loyalty intention (Lim and Dubinsky, 2004; Wolfinbargar and Gilly, 2003).

E-business quality
E-business quality relates to the ability of a web site to facilitate the online ordering
process (Hult et al., 2007). In physical store settings, store design appears to affect
customers’ perceptions of merchandise quality as well as price perceptions of the store
 (Baker et al., 2002). Likewise, high-quality web site design can enhance online Web content
customers’ shopping experience by increasing navigability and ease of use. Findings analysis of
from previous studies show that uncluttered and easy-to-search web sites enhance
attitudes toward online shopping, online purchase intention and the level of e-grocery retailers
satisfaction with customers’ shopping experience (Liu and Arnett, 2000; Szymanski
and Hise, 2000; Yoo and Donthu, 2001). Given the high frequency and repeated routine
of grocery shopping, a user-friendly web interface of an e-grocer’s web site will be an 843
important factor for customers in evaluating their online shopping experience. In an
empirical study, Hult et al. (2007) confirmed that e-business quality is a critical
determinant of consumers’ repurchase intention for online grocery web sites.

Methods
Sampling and data collection
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In this study, e-grocers are defined as online retailers that provide consumers with
online ordering services for groceries electronically (Verhoef and Langerak, 2001).
Various industry reports and analyses were studied to identify all significant US
e-grocers (e.g. supermarket news top 75 list (www.supermarketnews.com), the top 100
(internet) retailers’ list (www.stores.org), and additional sites such as, www.gmabrands.
com, www.fmi.org, and foodindustrycenter.umn.edu/). These sources reported major
bricks-and-clicks and pure-play grocery web sites. This study reports findings from a
broad-range of business models, providing offerings analogous to traditional groceries.
Specialized food e-commerce sites (e.g. sellers concentrating on single products such as
tea or coffee), are excluded from this analysis.
In general, surveyed e-grocers represent three different e-business types:
internet-pure players such as Freshdirect.com; joint operations between a traditional
grocer and an online service provider such as Stop and Shop with PeaPod; and
traditional grocers that run multi channels, such as Safeway. A complete list of
e-grocers surveyed each period is shown in Table I. Data were collected at three time
points over two-week periods in 2003, 2004, and 2005 by graduate students at a large
Midwest University, who were thoroughly trained in the coding scheme. Suggestive of
the changing industry structure over this period, the data include 18 e-grocers’ web
sites in the first quarter of 2003, 16 in the first quarter of 2004, and 25 in the first
quarter of 2005.

Instrument
The original evaluation instrument was developed by a group of e-agribusiness
researchers and used to assess e-grocers’ web sites (Rha et al., 2001). The instrument
measures how e-grocers communicate with their consumers through the internet and
what kinds of quality signals they use on their web sites. Evaluation indicators were
developed following extensive reviews of the relevant academic and industry literature
in the fields of marketing, communication, computer science, and consumer research.
The instrument quantifies both the technical performance of a web site and its success
or failure as a marketing-communication and sales-transaction tool (Lim et al., 2004).
The original instrument includes various aspects of e-grocers’ online performance
such as fulfillment, pricing/payment options, customer service quality, product
information, company information, security/privacy issues, and e-business quality.
Industry-specific items (e.g. recipe links in web site design, availability of nutritional
 IJRDM
Company name 2003 2004 2005 E-business type
37,10
Net Grocer U U U Internet pure
Groceries Express U U U Internet pure
Simondelivers U U U Internet pure
PriceChopper U –a –a Internet pure
844 Metro Food Market U –a –a Internet pure
Egrocer U –a Internet pure
Yourgrocer U U Internet pure
Freshdirect U Internet pure
Peapod U U U Joint
Stop & Shop U U U Joint
Stater Bros U U U Joint
WhyRunOut U –a –a Joint
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Giant U U –a Joint
Harris Teeter U U U Traditional
Marsh U –a –a Traditional
Giant Food U –a U Traditional
Bashas U U U Traditional
Albertsons U U U Traditional
Schnucks U U U Traditional
Publix U –a –a Traditional
Hy-Vee U –a –a Traditional
Samsclub U –a Traditional
Lowesfoods U U Traditional
Vons U U Traditional
Pavilions U U Traditional
Gristedes U Traditional
D’agostino U Traditional
Safeway U Traditional
Acme U Traditional
Sentryonthego U Traditional
Norkus U Traditional
Dorothy Lane Markets U Traditional
Farm Fresh U Traditional
Santoni’s U Traditional
Table I. Note: aThese e-grocers were not available for online ordering or closed their businesses during the
E-grocers surveyed data-collection period

information and specific grocery items such as organic foods) are included. For the
purpose of this study, items that measure product information quality, customer service
quality and e-business quality are selected from a broader study instrument. To
measure quality of product information, items that consumers might consider in
shopping for grocery products are selected including nutritional information,
description of product origin and other product specific information. To measure
quality of customer service, items that reflect effectiveness of communication between
customers and a company are included. For e-business quality, items that measures
quality of interface design that facilitates customers’ online ordering are included.
Given the focus of this application, prior to the content analysis in 2005, item reduction
was conducted by researchers adapting the previous instrument to better target the
 three dimensions described above. In this procedure, items that are not clear to coders Web content
and redundant are removed. The resulting 39 items of quality indicators in the final analysis of
coding instrument are presented below.
Product information quality: e-grocery retailers
(1) Does the web site contain any nutritional information about the products?:
.
Can you get a complete list of ingredients for the products?
845
.
Can you get a complete list of nutrition facts for the products?
.
Are there any processed food products for which you can find no nutrition
facts?
(2) Can you ask store nutritionists for more detailed nutritional information?
(3) Can you search for products by place origin?
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(4) Can you get information about the type of farm where the raw food commodity
originated?
(5) Can you get detailed information about specific farms and farmers?
(6) Are there direct links to the different producers or processors web sites from the
grocer’s site?
(7) Can you get detailed information about the production process (e.g. what kind
of seeds has been used, how long the wine has been aged, etc.)?
(8) Does the e-grocer sell organic products?:
.
Can you get detailed information about which products are organic?
.
Can you find out who certifies the organic claim?
. Can you search for organic products only? (Note: organic ¼ products grown
without certain artificial chemicals).
(9) Does the e-grocer sell products with enhanced animal welfare attributes?:
.
Can you get detailed information about which products have enhanced
animal welfare attributes?
.
Can you find out who certifies the animal welfare claim?
.
Can you search for enhanced animal welfare products only?
Customer service quality:
(1) Is there a standard form to fill out and send via e-mail?
(2) Is there a phone number listed for a service center?:
.
Is it a 1-800 number?
.
Is it a local number?
(3) Are there different e-mail addresses for customer service and technical support?
(4) Does the e-grocery promise to call the customer to resolve problems?
(5) Is there a link to FAQ?
(6) Can you cancel your order online?:
.
Do you have to phone into cancel your order?
(7) Do you get a confirmation e-mail once your order has been accepted?
 IJRDM E-business quality:
37,10 (1) Is there a search tool to let you locate the product directly?
(2) Are the products categorized into groups?
(3) Can you get recipes?
(4) Can you get recipes linked from other homepages (outsourced, e.g. Kraft)?
846 (5) Is there a quick search tool (e.g. by key words) for recipes?
(6) Are there pictures on the recipe pages?
(7) Can you easily print out the recipes?
(8) Can you automatically add recipe ingredients to your shopping cart?
(9) Does the website provide product pictures?:
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.
2D.
.
Pop-up image (enlargement).

Intercoder reliability
A further reduction of quality indicators was conducted through an intercoder
reliability process in 2005. Two graduate students coded ten sample web sites
independently. Since coders’ process of web navigation has a significant influence on
their search strategies (Barab et al., 1996), coders were instructed to explore each site as
a potential customer to find information before purchasing a product on an e-grocery
web site. The unit of analysis was the entire web site of each e-grocer that a potential
customer can surf prior to purchasing grocery products. A previous study suggested
that web content analysis should include all links and pages that are hyperlinked from
the main root address so that the results capture the most complete snapshot of the web
site (Chan-Olmsted and Park, 2000). Therefore, such features (e.g. links to recipes) were
included in this analysis. After deleting items with low reliability (, 0.70) (Lombard
et al., 2002), results demonstrate a high degree of reliability (88 percent) for the
remaining 34 quality indicators which are quantitatively explored over the three years
of data.
This final set of 34 quality indicators was categorized into three dimensions
identified as important indicators of online service quality (Szymanski and Hise, 2000;
Wolfinbargar and Gilly, 2003). The dimensions are product information (18 items),
customer service quality (ten items), and e-business quality (11 items). Items of quality
indicators in the final coding instrument are shown in the above list.

Results
Measures of web site effectiveness in 2005
In general, findings demonstrated a lack of effectiveness in presenting product
information on e-grocers’ web sites. On average, e-grocers’ web sites displayed only 13
percent of the surveyed product information cues (e.g. nutritional facts, product
information, brand assortment, and meal solutions for special needs). Surprisingly, 48
percent of the web sites did not present nutrition facts for products.
Quality of customer service varied. Most web sites had contact information for the
retailers such as e-mail address (83 percent of web sites), standard forms to fill out and
send via e-mail (74 percent), a phone number for a service center (96 percent), and a link
 to frequently asked questions (FAQ) (83 percent). About 43 percent of e-grocers let Web content
customers cancel their orders on the internet and 13 percent by telephone. Few of the analysis of
e-grocers permitted customers to check the status of an order online (13 percent). The
presence of a shopping agent that helped customer decision making was limited e-grocery retailers
(4 percent).
Regarding e-business quality, about 80 percent of the web sites had a search tool
that helps customers locate products reasonably easily. Products were commonly 847
categorized into groups for easy identification (83 percent). The web sites mostly used
2D pictures for product presentation (74 percent). More than a half of surveyed
e-grocers provided recipe information either on their web sites or with a link to a
third-party web site. However, they lacked convenient features such as linking
ingredients of a recipe directly to a customer’s shopping cart.
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Longitudinal changes in web configuration

Results of multivariate analysis of variance tests revealed that quality of product
information in e-grocers’ web sites was significantly different over the three time
periods (Wilks’ l ¼ 0.36, p , 0.01). Table II shows descriptive statistics and analysis
of variance (ANOVA) results for each quality dimension. From 2003 to 2005, product
information (F ¼ 12.99, p , 0.01) appeared to vary the most. Overall, the presence of
product information increased over the period (mean: 3.3 in 2003; 2.1 in 2004; and 5.8 in
2005). Results of post hoc tests using the Turkey method confirmed such a difference.

Differences between e-business types

x 2 analyses were conducted to examine differences of each quality dimension (i.e.
product information, customer service, e-business quality) across different e-business
types (i.e. alliances between traditional and internet-pure players). Differences were
observed in presentations of e-business quality in 2004 (x 2 ¼ 27.20, p , 0.01). In 2004,
traditional retailers scored higher in e-business quality than internet pure players and
joint-operation grocers. That is, quality of web site design that facilitates customers’
online navigating and ordering process appeared to be higher in traditional grocers’
web sites than internet pure players’ and joint-operation grocers’ web sites.

Discussion and managerial implications

This study conducted content analysis of grocery retailers’ web sites in a longitudinal
manner. Findings from this study, reveal changes of grocery retailers’ online
performance over time. One interesting finding from longitudinal observations is the

2003 2004 2005

(n ¼ 18) (n ¼ 16) (n ¼ 25)
Dimensions Number of items Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD F-value

Product information 18 3.28 3.30 2.06 1.95 5.84 1.93 12.99 *

Customer service 9 5.00 1.68 5.56 1.21 5.28 1.1 0.76
E-business quality 11 5.67 2.00 6.25 2.57 5.80 2.18 0.32 Table II.
Descriptive statistics and
Note: *p , 0.01 ANOVA results
 IJRDM entry and exit of traditional grocery retailers. For example, Marsh, a well-established
37,10 traditional grocery retailer, was providing online delivery services in the first quarter
of 2003 when we surveyed their web sites but closed their e-services later in 2003.
Publix is another traditional grocery retailer who started PublixDirect, the online
grocery shopping service, in 2001 but ceased their online services in the third quarter of
2003, stating that PublixDirect did not generate enough volume to sustain their
848 business (Meinhardt, 2003). In concluding that online shopping services were not
profitable, these traditional grocery retailers decided to concentrate their resources and
capital on in-store operations.
On the other hand, certain grocery retailers appear to be successful in online service
performance. For example, Safeway, a traditional grocery retailer, provides online
shopping and delivery services to their San Francisco Bay area customers as well as
other regional markets. Their online shopping service has been successful by
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leveraging their established infrastructure and a partnership with a UK-based grocery

retailer, Tesco, a successful online grocery service (Quader and Quader, 2008).
In this study, online grocery retailers’ e-fulfillment strategies were evaluated in
three dimensions – product information quality, customer service quality, and
e-business quality. Findings from longitudinal analyses of web content provide
evidence of dynamics in the quality of online services and changes in online grocers’
web business configurations.
In general, web sites of e-grocers in our study do not appear to be effective in
delivering quality information. For example, only about a half of the e-grocers surveyed
offered nutritional information, and only a few e-grocers provided information about
product origin in 2005. Results of this study show that e-grocers are improving
the presentation of product information over time. Given that e-grocery retailing
involves experience goods where sensory evaluation prior to purchase is often critical,
strategies for e-grocers must center on presentations of product quality, which enable
customers to make selections in the absence of physical examination. For perishable
grocery products, detailed information such as nutritional information and descriptions
of origin may be used by customers as proxies for product quality that mitigate the
absence of sensory examination. Effective presentations of product information are
expected to increase consumers’ perceived compatibility in online purchases of grocery
products. Therefore, we recommend that e-grocers pay even more attention to product
quality information on their web sites in an attempt to alleviate customers about
compatibility.
Analysis of customer service quality did not reveal a significant change over time.
However, a single-time observation highlights the lack of web features that enable
customers to solve problems themselves. In 2005, less than half of the e-grocers allowed
customers to cancel their order online, and only 13 percent permitted customers to
check the status of their orders online. Further, the majority of web sites had no
shopping agent features to help consumers’ purchase decisions. Overall, online grocery
retailing web sites have a low level of customer support. Lack of personal interaction
with salespersons may affect consumers’ perceived compatibility negatively in online
grocery shopping. Quader and Quader (2008) argued that supermarket retailers can
take advantages of the internet channel not only to increase profitability but also
enhance quality of customer service. Given that convenience is the biggest motivation
for online grocery shoppers, e-grocers need to maximize facilitation of applications to
 create customized service and boost customers’ perceived relative advantages in the Web content
self-service environment. analysis of
Results of this study demonstrate that e-business quality that reduces complexity of
online ordering differ between different e-business types. Findings from this study e-grocery retailers
indicate that traditional grocery retailers provide better web sites for customers to
interact with their web sites. Their web sites appear to present more navigation
features such as recipe-related links for grocery products. Long-time experience with 849
food retailing held by traditional players appears to help them understand customer
needs and migrate to this innovative channel.
Despite the ever-increasing growth rate of online retailing sales, there are still
industry sectors that are struggling to make a successful transition to a web-enabled
business. Nevertheless, many persevere in nurturing an online presence in order to
remain competitive supporting the idea that “everybody-will-do-it” – eventually. As
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such, current activity of others may provide an “option value” in preparation for future
growth in the market. In conclusion, longitudinal analyses of web content provided
guidelines to late movers concerning sustainable e-fulfillment strategies and an effective
development of a commercial web site for an online grocery sector. Findings from this
study show that e-grocers in the US need to improve their e-fulfillment strategies in
terms of presentations of product information, customer service and e-business quality
on their web sites, which affect consumers’ shopping experience at a pre-purchase stage.
Effective management of their web contents will enhance consumers’ perceived relative
advantage and compatibility and reduce complexity of online ordering and, thus,
provide e-grocers with competitive advantages over competitors.

Limitations and future study

This study has some limitations to be addressed by future research. The first is
sampling. Although, this study investigated e-grocers’ online performance in a
longitudinal manner, companies that were surveyed in each time period varied. This
inconsistency of sampling is due to frequent changes in the e-grocery industry. For
example, earlier internet pure players exited the industry (e.g. price chopper);
traditional grocers stopped providing their online services (e.g. Marsh) and others
entered (e.g. FarmFresh). Thus, results of this study are limited to the general trend of
online grocery business. Another limitation lies in the instrument development. The
coding instrument was developed by experts using an extensive literature review.
However, the instrument may lack important evaluation criteria for e-grocers’ online
performance from consumers’ view points. Thus, future research is recommended to
test the instrument using consumer insight.
This study examined web contents of e-grocery retailers in a longitudinal manner.
By employing metrics of service quality (i.e. product information quality, customer
service quality, and e-business quality), findings from this study provide insights into
the progress of development of sustainable e-fulfillment strategies. However, this
study did not investigate whether or not a certain web feature improves company-level
metrics such as financial performance. Hult et al. (2007) claimed that due to the
perishable nature of certain grocery products, strategic choices of logistics and
technology may be factors in the success of online grocery retailing. This study
explored consumer-side applications of e-grocers’ applications but a future study may
 IJRDM investigate effects of consumer-side applications on company-side applications,
37,10 including research questions such as:
RQ. How online operations increase profitability and customer-retention rate, save
time and costs, bring competitive advantages, and increase supply chain
management and quality control (Quader and Quader, 2008).
850 In brief, future studies are recommended to take a collective look at consumer- and
supply-side issues.

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Corresponding authors
Richard Widdows and Neal H. Hooker can be contacted at: rwiddows@purdue.edu and hooker.
27@osu.edu, respectively

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