“Consumer behaviour: The case of

Millennial engagement with

supermarkets”

by
Supun Malimage

A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of
Master of Applied Management
Southern Institute of Technology
New Zealand

26th June, 2020

Student Declaration

Name of student – Supun Malimage

This thesis titled “Consumer behaviour: The Millennial engagement level with
supermarkets” is submitted in partial fulfilment for Southern Institute of technology degree
of Master of Applied Management.

Students declaration

I confirm that:

• This Thesis/Dissertation/Research Project represents my own work;

• The contribution of supervisors and others to this work was consistent with the
Southern Institute of Technology regulations and policies.
• Research for this work had been conducted in accordance with the Southern
Institute Technology ethics committee policies and procedures and had obtained
the ethics committee approval for the research.

Student signature: .........Supun..................................... Date: 26/06/2020

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Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr.Martin
Perry for his guidance and assistance for my Master of study and research. His immense
knowledge and guidance helped me out to carry out this research even during the Covid 19
lockdown period. His knowledge sharing was enlightening.

My sincere thanks to SIT ethics committee and chair Mrs Sally Bodkin-Allen for assistance
in approving the ethics clearance to conduct this study and the faculty lectures Dr Jerry
Hoffman and the rest for their guidance and assistance throughout the course.

Further my gratitude to Management team of SIT and Library staff members who extended
their support by going beyond to help me to throughout this research.

Last not least my wife Surangi Malimage who gave me an enormous support and courage to
carry out the study.

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Abstract
Where do you do your grocery shopping? What influences you to shop there?
Supermarkets are faced with the challenge of understanding what motivates their customers to
choose where they purchase their daily or weekly supplies. This research is based in the study
of consumer behaviour, which focuses on demographic segmentation in order to identify
specific influences on purchase decisions. The question under investigation is, ‘Is there any
difference in Millennial engagement with supermarkets compared with other age groups of
consumers?’ The study measures engagement with supermarkets. A questionnaire was used to
measure the level of influence of various factors in five specific areas, shopping patterns,
instore shopping behaviour, online shopping behaviour, social and environment responsibility
and service offerings. This was deemed a suitable tool to gather a large quantity of data from a
sample, and the actual level of engagement could be measured through the inclusion of an over
half the questions being based on a Likert scale. Data were gathered from 154 respondents and
3 interviews were conducted to triangulate the feedback. The results suggest that Millennials
evaluate and engage with supermarkets differently to other generations. Millennials were found
to prefer purchasing groceries online, to be very concerned about environment and social
responsibility activities of supermarket companies.

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Table of Contents
List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. 6
List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ 7
Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 8
1.1. Background ............................................................................................................................. 8
1.2. Significance of the study........................................................................................................ 11
1.3. Research aim and objectives ................................................................................................ 12
1.4. Data collection ...................................................................................................................... 14
1.4.1. Limitations ......................................................................................................... 14
1.4.2. Delimitations ...................................................................................................... 15
1.5. Profile of the study................................................................................................................ 16
Chapter 2 Industry Analysis..................................................................................................... 17
2.1 External Analysis ................................................................................................................... 17
2.2 Theory and Construct............................................................................................................ 31
Chapter 3 - Literature Review.................................................................................................. 42
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 42
3.1 Development of the Supermarket industry .......................................................................... 42
3.1.1 Supermarket industry in Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) ....................... 48
3.1.2 Challenges supermarkets are facing today......................................................... 49
3.2 Consumer behaviour............................................................................................................. 50
3.2.1 Consumer behaviour and supermarket industry ................................................ 51
3.2.2 Consumer perception towards special price deals............................................. 54
3.2.3 Consumer attitudes towards social and environmental activities undertaken by
supermarkets .................................................................................................................... 55
3.3 Impact of demographic factors on consumer behaviour ..................................................... 56
3.3.1 Who are Millennial generation?......................................................................... 58
3.3.2 Millennials as consumers ................................................................................... 58
3.3.3 The challenge from millennials to supermarkets ............................................... 59
3.4 E-commerce and online delivery of groceries. ..................................................................... 60
Chapter 4 Research Methodology............................................................................................ 64
4.1 Researching consumer behaviour......................................................................................... 64
4.2 Research design and strategy ............................................................................................... 67
4.3 Method ................................................................................................................................. 72
4.4 Data collection and analysis .................................................................................................. 80
4.5 Ethical consideration............................................................................................................. 80
4.6 Limitations............................................................................................................................. 83
Chapter 5 Findings and Analysis ............................................................................................. 87

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 Chapter overview .............................................................................................................................. 87
5.1 Findings of the questionnaire ............................................................................................... 88
5.2 Findings of Semi-structured Interviews ................................................................................ 96
5.3 Data Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 98
5.4 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 124
Limitations ..................................................................................................................... 125
Generalisations ............................................................................................................... 126
6. Recommendations and conclusion ................................................................................. 127
Chapter overview ............................................................................................................................ 127
6.1 Summary of research findings ............................................................................................ 127
6.2 Answering the research questions...................................................................................... 128
6.3 Comment on relationship to theoretical models................................................................ 133
6.4 Implications for Managers .................................................................................................. 135
6.5 Limitations........................................................................................................................... 136
6.6 Implications for future research ......................................................................................... 137
6.7 Closing statement ............................................................................................................... 138
References .............................................................................................................................. 139
Appendices ............................................................................................................................. 149
Appendix A Sample Questionnaire on grocery shopping at supermarkets .................................... 149
Appendix B – Interviews sample questions .................................................................................... 152
Appendix C – Interview participants information sheet ................................................................. 153
Appendix D – Interview participants consent form ........................................................................ 156
Appendix E – Ethics Approval Letter ............................................................................................... 157

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List of Tables

Table 2. 1 – Application of TAM online grocery purchases ................................................................... 38

Table 4. 1 – New Zealand Population. .................................................................................................. 76

Table 4. 2 – Population of Southland .................................................................................................... 77
Table 4. 3 – Ethical Consideration......................................................................................................... 81
Table 5. 1 Age category by gender .......................................................................................... 89
Table 5. 2 Demographic profile of Southland Region ............................................................. 89
Table 5. 3 Influence on price ................................................................................................... 91
Table 5. 4 Comparison on gender on influence on gluten free product range ......................... 96
Table 5. 5 Findings of the interviews....................................................................................... 96
Table 5. 6 Key highlights during the interviews ...................................................................... 97
Table 5. 7 Supermarket engagement index COVID – 19 impact comparison....................... 100
Table 5. 8 Average index score and supermarket loyalist of different age groups ................ 102
Table 5. 9 Most influential criteria by age ............................................................................. 105
Table 5. 10 Demographic profile of supermarkets loyalist on specials ................................. 106
Table 5. 11 preferred communication method compared by age........................................... 110
Table 5. 12 Influence by demographics towards social and environmental responsibility ... 112
Table 5. 13 Age group comparison on supermarket loyalist on loyalty card engagement .. 115
Table 5. 14 Willing to fully change to online shopping on demographics ............................ 117
Table 5. 15 Loyalty Millennials vs overall Millennials comparison over service offerings
supermarket choice ................................................................................................................ 119
Table 5. 16 Shopping patterns and gender ............................................................................. 121
Table 5. 17 Countdown male customer preference ............................................................... 122
Table 5. 18 Supermarket engagement index score average ................................................... 122
Table 5. 19 Countdown and New World customer index score comparison......................... 123

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List of Figures

Figure 2. 1 size of New Zealand’s economy ………………………………………………..20

Figure 2. 2 New Zealand’s consumer price index (CPI) ……………………...…………….21
Figure 2. 3 Median weekly earnings wages salaries…………………………………………22
Figure 2. 4 Average weekly household expenditure………………………………………....23
Figure 2. 5 Estimated composition of landfill waste……………………………...…………25
Figure 2. 6 Porter’s Five Forces Model……………………………………………..……….27
Figure 2. 7 Business and employee counts are annual snapshots as at February……..……..28
Figure 2. 8 Business in the supermarket and grocery stores industry in New Zealand..…….28
Figure 2. 9 Consumer Decision Making Process (DMP)………………………………..…..34
Figure 2. 10 Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)……………………………………..…38
Figure 3. 1 The generations…… …………………………………………………………....58
Figure 4. 1 The Research Onion……………………………………………………………..68
Figure 5. 1 Data collection and analysis framework................................................................ 87
Figure 5. 2 Supermarket visits frequency ................................................................................ 90
Figure 5. 3 Millennial Vs the other age group preferred supermarket..................................... 90
Figure 5. 4 Comparison of communication methods on specials ............................................ 91
Figure 5. 5 Specials influence on shopping behaviour ............................................................ 92
Figure 5. 6 Online ordering age wise ....................................................................................... 93
Figure 5. 7 Reasons of not using online grocery shopping ...................................................... 93
Figure 5. 8 supermarket Engagement Index example (SEI) .................................................... 98
Figure 5. 9 Supermarket index score (instore shopping behaviour age group wise) ............. 103
Figure 5. 10 Preferred supermarket age wise and main influences ...................................... 104
Figure 5. 11 Specials loyalist supermarket brand choice ....................................................... 107
Figure 5. 12 Shopping frequency age group wise.................................................................. 108
Figure 5. 13 Age group comparison on supermarket loyalist on loyalty card engagement ... 108
Figure 5. 14 Preferred communication methods vs demography .......................................... 110
Figure 5. 15 Supermarket Engagement Index (Corporate Citizenship) ................................. 111
Figure 5. 16 Loyalist of corporate citizenship and all participants supermarket brand choice
................................................................................................................................................ 113
Figure 5. 17 Supermarket Engagement Index (Online shopping behaviour) ........................ 114
Figure 5. 18 Online ordering by age ...................................................................................... 115
Figure 5. 19 Comparison on present service offerings and willingness to change ................ 116
Figure 5. 20 Supermarket visits multiple days a week compared by age group .................... 117
Figure 5. 21 Supermarket Engagement Index (Supermarket service and offerings) ............. 119
Figure 5. 22 Supermarket service offerings comparison over brand choice .......................... 120

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Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1. Background

In today’s busy society, supermarkets have become one of the dominant industries
in selling groceries any many countries. Supermarkets rely heavily on consumers as they
play pivotal role in terms of forcing changes in the industry. Today’s consumers have a
variety of options when choosing a supermarket, often connecting with their preferred
brands and playing a more participative role. According to Lindsay Rowels, the General
Manager of a leading supermarket in New Zealand “Consumers aren’t just ready for change,
they’re driving the change & looking for hacks that make shopping easier”. Therefore,
creating a full experience for customer has become more important than ever before. The
consumer characteristics and knowledge vary amongst individuals, therefore, their product
preferences, buying habits and buying decisions differ from each other.

With these significant demands it can be argued that the supermarket industry is in a
transformative period which enables consumers to become more dominant. Technological
developments have redefined the consumer experience by empowering consumers to
constantly connect, which influences changes in their shopping behavior. According to
Deloitte (2018) modern retail industry faces challenges to their growth, profitability and
performance. Therefore, innovation and transformation have to happen at a greater speed to
sustain the business.

The supermarket industry in NZ started by opening the first supermarket in 1957 and
over the years supermarket shopping has become a large industry, spreading across both
North and South Islands. There are three main supermarket brands sharing the market in
New Zealand. Foodstuffs Ltd, which is a NZ owned company, controls supermarket brands
PAK’nSAVE, New World and Foursquare, whilst Woolworths, an Australian subsidiary
company, controls Countdown and Value plaza supermarket brands. The value of the
industry in 2019 was NZ$ 21,001 million, which is a growth of close to 1% from 2018, (Sats
NZ, 2020). Further NZ supermarket industry is the largest retail industry which is about 27%

8
of the total retail market, (Sats NZ, 2020). The average spending of a person per week on
groceries in New Zealand is $213, which is about 16% of the total weekly spending (Sats
NZ, 2020). Grocery shopping is an important part of New Zealand households. According
to Colliers (2017) retail report, there was a significant increase in food and beverage
spending from year 2017 over the other years, which was very much supported by the
consolidated growth in the New Zealand population and the boom in the tourism industry.
Over years the NZ supermarket industry has gone through a lot of changes and
developments. Advances in technology has led to new mechanisms in supermarket
operations such as use of credit/debit cards, wireless transfers and faster checkouts. The
range of products has been changed due to lifestyle changes as people are more concerned
about healthy living and the use of packaging has changed due to people getting more
concerned about the environment. All these changes are driven by one main factor: the
change in consumer behavior. Understanding consumer behavior is very important for the
supermarket industry.

Consumer behaviour is a vast subject. Purchasing and consumer behavior has been
explored in various contexts across the globe. According to Bennet, Previte and Solomon
(2013) the consumer is an actor in the drama of purchasing with consumers going through
three different stages: pre-consumption, consumption and post-consumption. Consumer
behaviour has been defined by Belch (1978) as “the process and activities people engage in
when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and
services so as to satisfy their needs and desires" (Panwar, Ali, Singal, & Anand, 2019).

Though it is important for managers and marketers in any industry to identify the
needs and satisfy customers it is hard to determine the relationship between consumer
behaviour and correct marketing strategy. To overcome this challenge, several models have
been introduced, out of which Armstrong, Adam, Denize, Volkov and Kotler’s model of
Decision Making Process (DMP) is one of the most common tools (2007, p. 145).This model
helps to identify five steps a customer goes through before making a purchasing decision
through to after making the decision. The model gives the opprtunity for marketers to
identify consumer behaviour in each step and act proactively in order to identify and satisfy
customer needs and wants.

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 DMP has being used in past studies to evaluate consumer behaviour. Nash (2019)
used the model to test customers in the UK retail sector, and examined various external
factors which influence the DMP of the customer at any stage.The study identified that there
are simalarities between generations and DMP patterns. Another study done by Alamgir,
Nedelea, and Shamsuddoha (2011) used the DMP model to explore the procedure of car
buyers in Bangladesh. The model helped to identify that consumers do prefer the brand name
to make purchases and other purchase criteria. In the context of car purchasing, the DMP
model certainly helped the researchers to clearly distinguish the differences in the steps.

Another study done by Chang (2009) used the DMP model to understand the
influence of price on consumers. The study identified differences in the approach of offline
vs online selling. The DMP model also helped to identify some changes in consumer
behaviour. The implications of the model being used could be different based on the
industry, it could be used as a guideline in any industry to understand the process which
customers go through. Marketers could evaluate and impliment their own model of DMP
based on the industry (Panwar, Ali, Singal, & Anand, 2019).

Consumer decision making could vary depending on various reasons. It is important

for marketers to understand these variations and categorize those consumers separately.
Identifying needs and wants will be easy when consumers are categorized into groups with
similar needs, which is called market segmentation. Marketing segmentation of consumers
can be done mainly under four categories as geographical, demographic, psychographic and
behavioral (Armstrong, Adam, Denize, Volkov, & Kotler, 2018). These categories have
been the platform for past and present studies related to consumer behavior among
researchers and practitioners. As a result, numerous and diverse ranges of attributes related
to these categories have been identified as key influencing factors for consumer behavior.

At the same time, several studies have given more focus on the effect of various
demographic factors as these factors have become key influence on buying behavior. Many
past studies (Karakus and Sanlier, 2010; Mittal and Prashar, 2011; Paola, Andrea &
Mariorosaria, 2017; Barbara and Serafimova, 2019) have revealed consumer behaviour
changes depending on the demographic factors such as income level, gender, age. Changes

10
in consumer behaviour has led to the success of some products and an increase in market
shares. The companies who have reacted to these behavioural changes have succeeded. Out
of all these factors it will be important for the marketers to identify which demographic
factor indicates how to divide customers into groups. According to Bennett. Previte and
Solomon (2013) different age groups who were born in a similar time period with similar
motivations tend to have similar needs and wants. Therefore, age is a good demographic
variable to concentrate study about how consumer behavior varies.

According to (Bennett, Previte, and Solomon, 2013; Armstrong, Adam, Denice,

Volkov & Kotler, 2018) there are mainly three generations which are considered globally:
Baby Boomers generation born in between 1946-1964 who are aged from 55 to 74 as at
2019, Generation X who were born in between 1965-1984, aged 35-54 as at 2019, and
generation Y (Millennials) This generation was born between 1985-2002 and were aged 19-
25 as at 2019. These different age groups may have different behavioral patterns which will
influence their tendency on purchasing groceries from a supermarket. Studying the behavior
of these different segments will be beneficial for the industry.

1.2. Significance of the study

Out of all above generations the group Millennials are of interest to many
researchers. A lot of studies have been done on consumer behavior in particular, on the
Millennial generation. Many researchers (Burger, 2014; Grev, 2016; Kuhns and Saksena,
2017; Benjan, Dabija and Tipi, 2018; Harun and Prybutok, 2018) have revealed the
importance of the Millennial generation and how their requirements differ from other age
groups. Much of the research done on Millennials with relevance to supermarkets (Clarke
and Mortimer, 2011; Caraballo and Hendrix, 2017; Balakrishnan and Jindger, 2020) has all
been conducted in Australia, Asia or the US. Further, the studies were focusing on different
aspects as satisfaction on supermarkets own brands vs other brands, or are female
Millennials influenced to shop more than males. The Researcher believes there is a necessity
to do a study on the Millennial age group focusing on what criteria influences them most.

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 According to Mitchell (2019) grocery shopping in NZ is becoming an online
subscription service as the young generations age between 21 to 34 are driving this trend
due to its convenience for them. The author further stated that the new generation is driving
the industry towards new direction. The Researcher believes there is a requirement to
explore the NZ supermarket industry and how Millennials evaluation differs from others.

In the global survey on millennials Delloitte (2019) revealed key highlights on

Millennials as a group of individuals who like to work independently and there are a lot of
entrepreneurs within this age group. Further these age group likes to get involved with
companies which care for the society a lot, they tend to invest or purchase from these
companies more. Most importantly millennials are more connected with technology such as
social media and internet. Millennials represent 25% of the population in NZ (Sats NZ,
2020). In NZ the millennial weekly earning average up to NZ$ 618 (Stats NZ, 2019). Further
NZ Millennials have the highest percentage on having a qualification compared to other age
groups (Stats NZ, 2019). These factors prove that NZ millennials do have a big spending
capacity and influence on NZ economy. NZ Millennial population is a potential segment to
the supermarket industry. Understanding their behavioral changes and adjusting the
strategies to target this audience group is important for the industry management.

Considering all these aspects, it is important to understand how Millennial

consumers in NZ are evaluating the supermarket industry. Further the study will examine
differences in gender as well. Any differences between male and female consumer behaviour
will be identified in all age categorie.

1.3. Research aim and objectives

For this study the researcher’s choice of main question is a comparison on Millennial
behaviour from others in evaluating supermarket brand.

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Do millennials (people aged 19-25 in 2020) differ in their evaluation and use of
supermarkets from other age groups?
Researchers main objective is to compare whether Millennials in NZ have differences in
consumer behaviour compared to other age groups. If there are differences how these
differences affect the evaluation of the grocery shopping in a supermarket. What criteria is
important to Millennials than other. To have a scope to the study there are separate topics
which will be focused in detail. There are four areas of interest which will be explored
through this research.

Research sub questions

1. Are millennials more or less influenced, either positively or negatively by

supermarket promotions than other age groups?
One of the strategies which supermarkets use are special price offers to attract more
customers. How effective these price promotions are and who are more interested will be
important factors to identify. There could be a difference in influence level based on age.
Will there be a difference of the way which Millennials evaluate this is a question. These
criteria will be explored through this question .

2. What criteria influence the selection of a supermarket among millennials, and do

these criteria differ from those of other age groups?
Through this question researcher tries to identify if there are any particular requirements
from this age group than others. Does Millennials need and wants differ from other age
groups. Are they evaluating the supermarket brands differently than other age groups will
be researched.

3. Are millennials more or less influenced, either positively or negatively by the social
and environmental responsibility of supermarkets than are other age groups?
The environment and social responsibility are a big concern in modern day. There could be
a certain image which companies could create through these acts. Are consumers really
evaluate this whilst selecting a supermarket brand? Is there any particular age group who

13
are more concern about these activities? Are Millennials evaluation similar to others are
some questions which will explore through this research question.

4. Do millennials engage in online shopping more than other age groups?

The involvement of technology has changed the pattern of grocery shopping. There are two
platforms for customers now for their grocery shopping as online and instore shopping. Who
prefers online shopping more is an important question to identify? Through this question
whether Millennials prefer this approach more than others will be researched.
Researcher believe through the above questions the main factors which may affect the
change in consumer behaviour will be researched. Researcher believes this study will help
the Supermarket industry to garner knowledge on how the Millennials consumer behavior
differ from the other age groups. The effectiveness of present strategies and how consumers
evaluate these will be examined. Where the industry will be heading over next five to ten
years could be forecasted.

1.4. Data collection

In order to investigate above research questions, researcher have used a quantitative

approach of data collection through a questionnaire which was distributed using a sample in
Southland. Further three semi-structured interviews were conducted with recruited
participants in three locations around NZ. The purpose of interviews are to triangulate the
questionnaire and to get more insight on some question areas.

1.4.1. Limitations

The questionnaire was distributed mainly amongst Invercargill community using the
social media community platforms. Further personal contacts were used to distribute the
questionnaire in order to get faster responses. SIT students were a part of the questionnaire
which will represent majority of responses. These actions were taken in order to achieve a
high response rate in a shorter period.

14
 During the data collection due to Covid 19 pandemic did take place. This resulted a
slowdown in response rate of the questionnaire. Further Researcher was intending to conduct
two focus group discussions as a follow-through to the questionnaire which was not feasible.
Therefor the approach was changed to conduct three interviews using video conferencing
facility.

1.4.2. Delimitations

Supermarket industry is a vast industry which a lot of departments involvements as

Human resources, supply chain, finances, administration etc. This research will be based
on consumer behavior which is handled by Sales and marketing in supermarket industry.
The focus of the study was on consumer behaviour.
The sample was based in Invercargill and choices and evaluation of participants was
predominantly restricted to Invercargill.
The demographic variables used for this study will be gender and age only and there were
restrictions on capturing more details with regard to other demographic changes.

15
 1.5. Profile of the study

This study will be consisted of six chapters. Chapter one explains the importance of the
supermarket industry in New Zealand and importance of exploring consumer in order to
identify the differences. Out of all age groups Millennials are an important age group to
investigate further on how they evaluate supermarkets.

Chapter two industry analysis consist of two sections which is exploring the external
factors in NZ which effects the supermarket industry and secondly discuss about the models
which can be applied to distinguish differences in consumer behaviour.

Chapter three elaborate all relevant literature with regard to the developments of
supermarket industry to challenges it faces. How consumer behaviour is driving the industry
and how age is key influencer in decision making process. Further who are the generation
Millennials and their differences in consumer behaviour. Finally, the technological
development of online ordering and impact towards the supermarket industry.

Chapter four methodology chapter discuss how the differences in Millennials consumer
behaviour is researched. The method of using a survey to gather quantitative data and why was
this method more appropriate. How the survey and Interviews were conducted in order to
gather data.

Chapter five explained the summary of the findings and how data was analysed in order
to find solutions for research the questions.

Chapter six discuss the final answers to the research questions and Implications to
Theory, Management and future. Further the limitations and recommendations for future
research.

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Chapter 2 Industry Analysis

Chapter overview

This chapter has two sections. The first, External Analysis (2.1), measures the external
forces which impact the supermarket industry. The second part, Theory and Construct (2.2),
discusses the theories constructed about consumer behavior and technology. How those models
will be applied to this research will be discussed.

When an organization operates within any industry there are certain factors that may
influence its performance. Out of these factors some are within the control of the organization
and some are beyond the control of any organization. Chappello (2020) explains that those
conditions which exist in the economy as a whole, rather than in a particular industry, are
considered as a macro environment. In general macro environment includes political,
economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors which directly influence the
overall performance of any organization. Therefore, a broader analysis of these conditions is
essential for every organization in order to be competitive in their respective industries. A
PESTEL framework provides a good platform in terms of analyzing the macro environment
conditions.

As these macro environment factors could influence the decision-making

process of consumers, researcher employed the PESTEL framework to understand the different
macro factors that may affect the supermarket industry in New Zealand.

2.1 External Analysis

Political factors

This generally refers to the NZ government’s role with the supermarket industry in
terms of regulations and policy changes as well as international trade which impact the business
of supermarkets. New Zealand has very stable political system which is ranked number two
globally as the least corrupted country by the Corruption Perceptions Index 2018, released by
Transparency International (Open Government partnership, 2018).

17
 New Zealand taxation details reveal- New Zealand has a flat tax rate of 28% for
business which is comparatively attractive for business Apart from this the other only tax is
Goods and Services Tax which is 15% of the value of the sales (newzealandnow, 2020). These
favorable initiatives established by the NZ government open new avenues to the present retail
industry operators to further enhance and expand their operations. Retail operators can increase
their presence in NZ by opening new outlets or expanding their current outlet size by adding
new features. For example, supermarkets can establish supervised kids play areas to let the
parents spend more time in the outlet or they can establish food outlets with various multi-
cultural food products which helps in attracting more customers.

However, due to less competition in the supermarket industry, the only two large
companies Foodstuffs and Countdown are accused of maintaining high grocery margins (stuff
, 2018). This has been a debate politically and Prime Minister Jacinda Arden has promised in
a press conference to look at passing a law to compel supermarkets to provide all necessary
data to check about the retail grocery prices to Commerce Commission (stuff , 2018). Further,
the general elections happening in 2020 could be another turning point in terms of political
impact and could possibly create challenges in the future for the supermarket industry.

Economic Factors

The economy of a country is a crucial component and a key indicator of the

sustainability of any business or an industry. Macro-economic factors such as currency
fluctuation, per capita income and economic growth rate are some of the key indicators of the
country’s economy.

Over the last 10 years there is constant growth in New Zealand Economy as shown
below.

18
Figure 2. 11 size of New Zealand’s economy
From Gross Domestic Product, by Stats NZ (2019), https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-
releases/gross-domestic-product-june-2019-quarter

In 2019 New Zealand reached a milestone of $300 billion economy. Year over year
there has been a GDP (gross domestic product) growth of 2.5% which is very healthy. Trading
Economics (2020) highlights that in last quarter of 2019 the New Zealand economy has
expanded by 0.7% which was the fastest quarterly growth rate since the last quarter of 2018.
New Zealand Immigration (2020) also states that strong tourist demand from Asia and
increases in dairy exports will further drive the overall growth. The robust economic
performance of a country will have a positive impact on the businesses and provide room for
new investments.

Inflation also plays a significant role in a country’s whole economy as it is directly

affecting the prices of goods and services which cause changes to the cost of living. As

19
elaborates the rate of inflation in New Zealand is also very stable as in 2019 it was 1.9% which
is very healthy. NZ is averaging an inflation of 2.15% from 2000 to date which is less than in
the 1990’s which was 2.5% (Reserve Bank of New Zealand, 2019).

Figure 2. 12 New Zealand’s consumer price index (CPI)

From Inflation, by Reserve Bank of New Zealand (2020),

https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary-policy/inflation

(2019) states New Zealand has forecasted the inflation to remain steady at around 2%
until 2024. Low inflation in New Zealand is beneficial to the economy from many aspects:
from GDP, cost of borrowings and price of essential goods and services. On the other hand,

20
these favorable economic factors provide a good platform for new and current businesses to
get established, and the supermarket industry is no exception.

Social Factors

Social conditions such as religion, population increase, wealth distribution and culture
immensely influence the consumer perception and patterns of buying behavior. Therefor
understanding these factors are important for any industry. Statistics NZ (2019) shows that NZ
population at December 2019 is 4.9 million, which is an increase of 1.7% compared to 2018.
Furthermore, NZ immigration has increased over the past ten years averaging approving in
between 49,000 to 55,000 resident applications annually. Increase of population in return will
increase the demand for goods and services in the country. In order to capitalize the benefits
from these potential demands service providers such as retailers should be able to expand their
operational boundaries.

In addition to population increase, income levels of the country also would be a key
social element in terms of supermarket industry success.

Figure 2. 13 Median weekly earnings wages salaries

Income, by Stats NZ (2019), https://www.stats.govt.nz/topics/income

21
 Going through the above figure it is evident that NZ average earnings have been
increasing over the last ten years. In 2019 it was averaging at NZ$1000 per week which is at a
very good compared to cost of living. According to an article published by Shaw (2017)
Millennials are the big winners in this year's pay stakes by generation, with workers in their
20s now earning $33 more per week than they were earlier in the year. This is an increase of
the spending power of the consumer. This is a good opportunity for the supermarket industry.

Figure 2. 14 Average weekly household expenditure

From Business Performance Benchmarker, by Stats NZ (2019),
https://statisticsnz.shinyapps.io/bpbench/

NZ households spends majority of their weekly expenses on grocery food out of all
purchases. There is an increase of NZ$ 27 by 2012-2013 period to 2015-2016 period.

There is a concern about health issues in NZ, as 1 out of 3 adults (aged 15 and above)
are obese and 1 of 9 children (age 2-14) are obese (Ministry of health, 2019) .Which is a very
big concern for the country. As supermarkets are dominating the sales of food products a partial
blame falls to the industry as well. In reply both the major companies operating supermarkets
have agreed to work with the Ministry of Health to support the campaign which will drive
against child obesity (Devlin, 2016) . Supermarkets should join in the drive to address this
issue.

22
 Analyzing all above details, it is evident that social factors of New Zealand are in
favour of the supermarket industry.

Technological Impact

Technology development is enormous in today’s world. We have latest machinery

which eases human activities and the internet which connects the whole world. Technological
development has changed industries with modern equipment and systems, as well as consumer
behavior by making lives easier. Considering technological developments which the
competition uses, and consumer requirements is important for the supermarket industry.

In NZ the technological change has demanded supermarket industry to change the way
they operate. Retrieving news from Supermarketnews (2019) since the introduction of barcodes
to customers in 1981 there had been a lot of technology advancements in supermarkets. The
main reason for more recent changes is the new generation or Millennials. 69% of Millennials
are demanding they shop in a supermarket which has innovative tech. Supermarkets now have
self-checkouts and wide variety of payment options. Further some of the supermarkets have
invented smart trolleys with an inbuilt scanning option inside trolleys for customers to scan
and make their calculations which will ultimately reduce the checkout times.

Another development in the industry is click and collect option where consumers can
order their groceries online and pick it up from the supermarket as per their convenience.
Further supermarkets deliver the goods to the doorsteps of customers too. This option is getting
very popular in NZ and many supermarkets are developing their inventory management system
and logistics systems to match the demand of online deliveries.

Taking all into consideration NZ supermarket industry has to keep their technological
advancements up to date to match the demand.

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Environmental Impact

Due to global warming, Oceans getting polluted with plastic dump and due to various
other reasons countries around the world today are very concerned about environmental
protection. Managing a healthy environment and minimize the pollution is a big challenge for
NZ too. Based on a report by the Ministry for the Environment (2019) one of the main concerns
of NZ is landfill waste. An analysis was done in the 1990’s to find out the categories of waste.

Figure 2. 15 Estimated composition of landfill waste

From waste generation and disposal in New Zealand, by Ministry for the environment (2019),
https://www.mfe.govt.nz/plastic-bag-ban

Considering the numbers above, most of the waste produced is both directly and
indirectly linked to supermarkets. This includes paper products (packaging), organic (food
stuff), metal (tins, containers), plastic (bags, wraps and containers) and glass (bottles) which
are all sold day to day in supermarkets. Due to these supermarkets are accused of environment
pollution. The Government banned the use of single-use plastic bags from 1st of July 2019
(Ministry for the Environment, 2019). Countdown implemented the phasing out of single use
plastic bags from 13th August 2018 in 42 stores supporting the government initiative

24
(Supermarketnews, 2019). Likewise, Foodstuffs, which operates the supermarket chains
PAK’nSAVE, New World and Four Square announced to stop using plastic bags at checkouts
from 1st January 2019 (Supermarketnews, 2019).

Both companies seem to understand the impact on the business if they do not adhere to
environmental concern initiatives. According to (Supermarketnews, 2019) news Foodstuff has
agreed to the 2025 plastic packaging declaration and has been a part of various activities to
minimize waste by trying to package their goods with 100% reusable packaging. Further
Foodstuffs initiated a bring your own container policy with customers, by which customers
could bring their own food containers to buy food items (Supermarketnews, 2019). Countdown
is also following an environmental policy not only through packaging but by food hygiene and
managing supply chains in getting the fresh quality products to customers, as well to minimize
the wastage.

Today’s customers are very concern about the environment and this good work has to
continue to maintain a sustainable business.

Legal Impact

Legislation which is relevant to the industry and employees of supermarket industry is

important to understand. The NZFGC (New Zealand Food and Grocery Council) represents
the majority of manufacturers and suppliers of grocery food. The latest Act effective 25th
February 2019 consists of all laws with regard to supermarket industry (Rich (2019). The Act
consists of competition law and managing suppliers’ laws. These laws are placed to protect
consumers as well as industry. It is of the utmost importance for supermarkets to adhere to this
Act. The Commerce Commission does mystery shopping to check supermarkets adhere to the
correct protocol and in 2018 there were some accusations of PAKnSAVE charging more than
advertised (Commerce Commision, 2019). The consumer rights are secured through
Commerce Commission. Further according to Ministry of Primary Industries (2018) and
Health and Safety at Work Act (2015) health and safety and food safety regulations in New
Zealand are very important for supermarkets to comply with in their day to day operations.

25
Generally, NZ is covered with good legislator Acts to protect the whole industry. Both
supermarkets seem to generally adhere to the regulations.

Porters five forces analysis

Porter in 1998 introduced a model to analyses the industry attractiveness. This model helps
newcomers and existing business to identify the competitiveness in different angles. The main
five forces look at the industry from different angles are:

1. Rivalry amongst current competitors

2. Threat of substitutes
3. Threat of new entrants.
4. bargaining power of customers and
5. suppliers.
Applying this model to the NZ supermarket industry will give the opportunity to see the
dynamics of the competition and demand.

Figure 2. 16 Porter’s Five Forces Model

From strategy, by Business to you (2016), https://www.business-to-you.com/porters-five-

forces/

26
Rivalry among existing competitors

The New Zealand supermarket industry consists of three main supermarket chains. Two
companies Foodstuffs, which operates New World and PAK”nSAVE supermarket chains and
Woolworths, which operates Countdown supermarket chain. Analysis of the number of
business in the supermarket industry as bellow.

Figure 2. 17 Business and employee counts are annual snapshots as at February

From Business Demography Statistics, by Stats NZ (2019),

https://statisticsnz.shinyapps.io/bpbench/

Going through the numbers the growth of business in the industry is gradual. It is
mainly run parallel to the growth of population and increase in tourism. It is evident that neither
of the two players are over aggressive in the industry. There are 181 countdown supermarkets
in New Zealand (Woolworths Group, 2019). There are 132 New World supermarkets and 56
PAK’nSAVE supermarkets in New Zealand (Foodstuffs NZ, 2019) .

27
Figure 2. 18 Business in the supermarket and grocery stores industry in New Zealand

From region, by Figure.nz (2019), https://figure.nz/chart/qD7YkkfAFcmrk6MJ-

0FihqoKvCJbMHtmJ

It is evident that supermarkets are situated according to how the population is based in
the country .Supermarketnews (2019) revealed that all three supermarkets are targeting three
different consumer groups and competition in the industry is healthy. All supermarket chains
seem to understand consumer behavior change and invent new technology to cater for the
demand, such as fast checkouts and online delivery developments. Most of the industry experts
(stuff , 2018) agree that there is a duopoly in the industry and that these two companies are
overcharging consumers. Considering all the facts based on the current competition it proves
that there is no real rivalry amongst the supermarkets in New Zealand. Between the main two
supermarket operators, Foodstuffs controls market share of 55% whilst Woolworths NZ
controls 42% (Cody & Santella, 2018). Which equally shares the market rather than being over-
aggressive to increase the market share.

Threats of new entrants

It is important to understand the threat of new entrants to an industry which if low will
increase the competition. This depends on barriers to enter and condition in the present
industry. In the New Zealand supermarket industry (stuff , 2018), according to many market
specialists reveal the threat of new entrant to the industry is very low. As there are several
barriers such as NZ geographical location, been away from the world means there is an
additional cost for shipping. Further it is a big operation to setup a supermarket chain in NZ as
there are many logistics barriers. The New Zealand population stands at 4.9 Million at the end
of 2019 which makes the attractiveness for the third-party supermarket chain low. As both the
main supermarket chains have tie ups with loyalty card providers and other companies such as
Flybuys, Air New Zealand they have a very big foothold in the industry, which will be another
challenge for the new entrants. Therefore, the new entrants would need to come up with an
exceptional plan to break into the market which is unlikely to happen in the near future.

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Threats of substitute products

The substitutes to the New Zealand supermarkets can be considered as the independent
groceries such as dairies which sell groceries, Value Plaza another small supermarket chain
and the ethnic grocery suppliers such as Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese.Further there is a grocery
supplier which specializes in selling organic products such as Food Box. Most of these grocery
suppliers do have online deliveries arranged for the convenience of customers as Yogiji’s and
Guruji for Indian groceries. But due to the limited product range which these substitutes offer
the threat level to the supermarkets are quite low.

The Bargaining Power of buyers

Even though there is a limited choice of supermarket brands available in New Zealand,
it is evident that the bargaining power of customers is quite high. Consumers in New Zealand
are demanding the supermarkets be price sensitive and both supermarkets try to offer special
deals almost every week. Further consumers changing behavior also have challenged the
supermarkets to adopt to new technology by inventing fast and convenient mechanism to serve
customers quickly. The range of products are getting wider such as inbuilt cafés, service deli,
on the go food stations and a wide variety of products. Most importantly the online delivery
system is getting popular and supermarkets are inventing new methods to cater to customer
demand. Overall New Zealand consumer bargaining power is high as customers can switch to
competition at any given time.

The Bargaining Power of suppliers

Considering New Zealand supermarket industry, the suppliers must rely on two
dominant supermarket operators and the market size is also relatively low. Therefore, the
suppliers do not have a choice or significant bargaining power to control the industry. It can be
considered that the bargaining power of the suppliers are moderate.

Conclusion

As discussed, from the PESTEL analysis, some vital external environmental influences
were revealed for the supermarket industry. The present macro – environmental factors in New

29
Zealand political and economic situation looks attractive to the business and supermarket
industry. Further social and technological factors are influencing the industry in a positive
manner to gain healthy competition and raise industry standards. New Zealand industry is
covered by a good legal framework to safeguard the interest of consumers, suppliers and
companies too. These factors may differ slightly depending on the geographical location (city)
in which the supermarket operates as population and local regulations may be different.
Understanding PESTEL factors will benefit the industry to maintain the success.

According to the Porter s five forces analysis, the power of buyers is a key driver of the
industry. The other key influencing factor is the rivalry amongst the current competition, as
both large firms are trying to develop their services to better serve customers and gain more
market share. As other factors are generally less of an influence to becoming more competitive,
supermarket companies should focus on their brand’s marketing strategies.

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 2.2 Theory and Construct

Through this part of the industry analysis, theoretical models/ frame works related to
the research problem and sub questions will be strategically discussed and analyzed in order to
get an understanding how the theoretical models can be applied for this research. The
theoretical models/frameworks will be discussed separately.

Age and consumer behaviour

Many authors (Evans, Jamal, Foxall, 2009; Armstrong, Adam, Denice, Volkov &
Kotler, 2018) have talked about understanding of demographic factors such as age, gender and
social class being important to identify the co-relation to consumer behavior. A lot of research
has been done on the subject of supermarkets and demographic factors. According to
Mahalangu and Makhitha (2019) age and income level plays a significant role in consumer
behavior. They stated that age group between 18-24 are significantly conscious about
gratification and that supermarkets should focus on hedonic features as well inbuilt restaurants
and cafes, whilst the age groups 25-35 and 35-45 are more concerned about the layout and easy
access to checkout counters. Their research found that those earning group US$800-US$1500
monthly are more concerned about discounted prices and promotions whilst the income group
between US$1500-US$2500 are more concerned about the branded product range. Matic
(2013) revealed a co-relation to demography, factoring consumer behavior by age and
education level. They discussed “consumer ethnocentric tendencies” and found that young
people with a level of high education have more tendency towards purchasing products locally
manufactured than elderly people. According to Yin,Pei and Ranchhod (2013) segmenting
consumers according to different behavioral changes considering demographic factors such as
age and income level helps retailers and both consumers to achieve their targets as well as
satisfaction. They further stated that elderly people with low income level are least attracted to
promotional activities and bundle offers as their requirements are simple and limited. This
study further identified that consumers visiting multiple stores such as Tesco, Sainsbury and
Asda are the young population. The elderly population prefer the closest convenience store.
Considering the past research, it is evident that age is a key factor that decision making may
change.

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 Age is a critical factor for consumer behavior as different age categories shows different
attitudes towards their purchasing behavior. According to Solomon,Bennet and Previte (2013)
different age groups who were born in similar time period with similar motivations tend to have
similar needs and wants. According to (Armstrong, Adam, Denice, Volkov & Kotler, 2018;
Solomon, Bennett & Previte, 2013) there are mainly three generations which are considered
globally, being Baby Boomers, generation X and generation Y (Millennials).

BabyBoomers
These are the generation born in between 1946-1964, aged from 55 to 74 as at 2019. In
Australia this category is about 25% of the total population which has a big bargaining power.
They are a generation who enjoys travel and buying luxury products, and they also adapt to
new technology as well. In New Zealand the population within this age category is about 12.5%
from New Zealand total population (Sats NZ, 2020).

GenerationX
The generation born in between 1965-1984.which is about 20% of the Australian population.
They are a generation burdened with taxes who always consider price and quantity for
purchases. In New Zealand this population is about 26% of the total population (Sats NZ, 2020)

GenerationY(Millennials)
The generation born in between 1985-2002 is is about 47% of the total population of Australia.
In New Zealand this population is about 25% of the total population (Sats NZ, 2020).

They are the most comparatively educated out of three segments and very much
influenced by technology. A study has revealed 96% of millennials use the internet for
approximately two hours a day. Many markets are targeting this segment as they are seen as
large and attractive. Most of the advertising campaigns are targeted to this segment based on
social media and digital media.

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 According to Mitchell (2019) the supermarket industry is shifting more towards an
industry of convenience. Subscription boxes with essential groceries are taking place and it is
getting more famous day by day. 60% of the customers whose are using it amongst the age
category 21-34. The behaviour and decision making could be different according to the
generation. Understanding generational requirements and how consumer behaviour is
influenced is important for the supermarket industry.

Consumer behaviour and decision making

Out of four main research questions three are related to consumer behavior. Trying to
explore how Millennials consumer behavior differ from other age groups by identifying the
differences of decision making.

Understanding the different aspects of consumer behavior and co-relation to the age is
important to find solution for these. According to Velez (2003) consumer decision on which
supermarket to choose is vastly complex, there’s no supermarket brand which has achieved
100% customer base, as customers’ perception about price and quality may vary. The decisions
may change from time to time. Human beings are not alike; therefore, segmenting customers
and understanding their needs and wants in a complex way may help supermarkets to attract
more consumers.

Figure 2. 19 Consumer Decision Making Process (DMP)

Principles of Marketing, by Kotler, Brown, Adam, & Armstrong, (2007, p. 145)

33
 The above model elaborates the process a customer goes through before making any
purchase decision. Main objective of marketing is to understand consumer needs and creating
certain wants in the minds of the customer. Therefore, accurate marketing strategies needs to
be adapted in each stage which immensely help marketers to create a positive image on
consumer’s mind towards any product or service. Decision making process could be different
based on the instance. A consumer who wish to purchase a vehicle evaluates this process
differently to the process which he or she adopts whilst purchasing groceries.

Grocery shopping is a continuous process and the relevance of this model to the
supermarket industry could be different. The application of the model to in NZ supermarket
industry is analyzed bellow.

Need recognition
Schiffman, et al (2008) revealed that need is likely to occur when finding a solution to
the present problem of consumer. It describes the state the consumer will arrive between the
present state in which he or she sees the situation, and the state which he or she wants to arrive
at.

The requirement for groceries is mandatory for all households and individuals. Yet the
size of the shopping cart differs according to the requirements of needs and wants of consumer.
Based on age the variety of goods may differ. Advertising may have an influence in consumers
mind creating needs and wants which marketers should pay attention to. Marketers should
understand the target audience and select their advertising as use of TV, radio, newspaper as
well as social media.

Information search.
After the need recognition, the consumer will start looking for information. Schiffman,
et al (2008) revealed that consumer tries to retrieve memory from a past experience to gather
information and if the information is not enough, he or she will go for an external source to
garner more information. Further they revealed that this information can be break down into
their categories as product factors (product or service features), situation factors (experience,
value for money, convenience) and personal factors (age, income, social group). ‘

34
 Marketers should understand each segment of consumers and their preferred mode of
information search. There should be a blend of above the line advertising as TV, radio,
newspapers and brochures as well as social media and the internet. The young generation or
millennials may prefer to search online for their needs. Marketers should focus on key
information as price and product specifications in all advertising material clearly. Another area
which markets should focus is the word of mouth, as this may positively or negatively influence
the brand name.

Evaluation of alternatives
This is the stage in which consumers will compare aspects such as price, product range,
convenience. Schiffman, Et al (2008) revealed that evaluation consists of two different areas
such as evaluation of brands, shortlisting the best couple of brands and evaluating those
individual products and services.

At this stage consumer decisions may differ based on age and other demographic
factors. Some customers preference should be for convenience more and price for others.
Marketers should focus on targeting their products in the correct range to convince customers
to use their products. Having a competitor analysis would give companies advantage to
benchmark their services and products competitively. The special deals or price promotions
may influence some consumers more than others. Another key influence on evaluation would
be the technology, as online ordering, click and collect or delivery may have a competitive
advantage.

Purchase decision
At this stage consumer has decided to make the purchase. Schiffman, et al (2008)
revealed that human decision making consists of two major categories, compensatory decision
which consumer will compare the product attributes against the alternatives and non-
compensatory decisions in which consumer will think of the negatives and disqualify that
product, service or brand from purchase decision.

35
 In the supermarket industry purchasing groceries is continuous therefore securing a
customer is important as he or she will choose the brand more or less when a need arises. The
product range may influence this decision more.

Post purchase evaluation.

This is the final step as customer is either satisfied or dissatisfied with the product or
service. Schiffman, et al (2008) stated there are there possible outcomes of expectation and
evaluation.
 Neutral, consumer gets what he or she expected.
 Exceed expectation where he or she gets something extra than expected.
 Below expectations where he or she is not satisfied with product or
service.
There could be other factors influencing satisfaction of consumer. Apart from product
or services customers may evaluate the goodwill of the company. A company which behaves
more morally towards society and the environment may give customer a satisfaction that he or
she has chosen the right brand. Loyalty programs and cards may influence repurchase behavior.

This model provides a good platform for evaluating what factors influence the decision-
making process of consumers. Also, while targeting the separate age groups who may have
different needs and wants separately, it helps marketers to understand the consumer behavior
in depth. Marketers can focus on key areas which may influence different age groups.

Impact of technology
The fourth research sub-question is, related to evaluate if there is a difference in
Millennials in using online shopping more than other age groups.

Lifestyles are getting busy and people are looking for more convenient methods to save
time. One of the alternatives for instore grocery shopping is the use of online shopping delivery.
Marketers should understand the importance of this requirement and is there a co-relation to
different age segments.

36
 Ordun (2015) revealed in their study that millennials is the group which mostly follow
trends, or what is popular at that time,. This is due to their use of social media more than other
age groups. They are influenced mainly by social media more than traditional advertising and
mostly follow the ideas of virtual friends than real friends. Febriana and Yunus (2019) revealed
from their study that the success of the advertising through online platforms is more effective
at targeting the millennial generation. Social media is a two-way communication platform on
which supermarkets get the opportunity to receive feedback from the Millennial population.
To see the impact of technology the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) can be of use to
the NZ supermarket industry.

Figure 2. 20 Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

From International Journal of Human computer studies, by Journals plos org (2019),
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0216007

As revealed by Evans,Jamal and Foxall (2009) in 1989 Davis proposed this model
measuring perceived values such as usefulness and ease of use and the co-relation to behavioral
intentions and actual use. This was later extended in 2000 by Venkatesh and Davies to consider
the external variables.

The model helps to analyses the factors which influence the acceptance of a particular
technology model. In the model, acceptance is based on two factors: perceived usefulness
which a person thinks the technology will help him or be more convenience, and perceived

37
ease of adaptation to this technological change a person thinks it will be . There’s a direct
influence in external variables as social influence which is demographic variable such as age,
education level, social class etc.

Relating this to the supermarket industry, there had been a lot of technological
advancements in the industry. Starting from barcode scanners to self-checkouts, debit/credit
card options and latest technological development of online deliveries or click and collect. As
discussed previously millennials are more engaged in technology and this might be in high
demand with this sector of consumer. Further there could be other age groups who consider
this as more convenient and adopt it too. Understanding these factors which will influence
consumers to use this technological development is important for the industry. Also, it will
give the opportunity to identify which segment prefer this most.
How the model will work in an instance of using online ordering in supermarket industry is
elaborated in bellow table.

Table 2. 1 – Application of TAM online grocery purchases

Factors Impact
External Variables These are the external environmental factors
such as social, political and cultural. This is
the sector which the age of consumers will
have a big influence. There could be a
preference from the millennials to use
technology more than other age groups to
purchase groceries and usage if Internet.

38
 Another factor could be the social class of the
consumers who would prefer convenience.
The other external factors as political and
cultural are supporting this new technology
development.

Perceived usefulness This is how the consumers will evaluate how

useful online delivery would be for them.
The distance to store or transportation may be
one of the reasons which a consumer sees
online delivery useful. Further for consumers
who have long working hours or students
who have busy schedule could be another
reason for this online delivery usage.
Understanding consumer requirements will
be useful for marketers.

Perceived ease of use This will be how customers accept the fact of
how easy online delivery would be for them
to use. Millennials may have more control of
this as they are more engaged with the
technology. The other generations may be
reluctant to use this technology.

Behavioral intention This consist of three main parts, as

consumers attitude, subjective norm and
perceived behavioral control (Mamman,
Ogunbado, & Abu-Bakr, 2016). Applying
this to online deliveries in supermarket
industry, this will be how consumer thinks he
or she will adopt to this change. Age could be
a main influencer in deciding this. Yet again

39
 millennials attitudes could be different to
other generations on their attitude towards
technology.

Actual system use This is the final step of how consumers will
start using the online delivery systems.
Adapting time could vary depending on age
and other factors.

Conclusion

Consumer perception is a key factor which influence the purchase decision. Further
there are various other forces which influences the acceptance of new technology.
The Decision-Making Process (DMP) focuses on behaviors during the main stages
which a customer goes through. It helps to identify the effectiveness of the present strategies
which supermarket brands have implemented as special price deals. Further it helps marketers
to analyses the effectiveness of adhering to social and environmental responsibility which
could be another influencer to attract business. Most importantly through this model marketers
can identify how the decision making may differ based on demographic factors specifically
age.

The (DMP) focuses more on consumer behavior from consumers perspective on

resolving the research question, what criteria influences the millennials and the other age
groups to shop more at a particular supermarket brand.

The technology acceptance model (TAM) will be helpful for the marketers to evaluate
the success of technology involvement in supermarket industry. It will help them analyses how
effective the changes are and how convenient it has become for the customers. Specifically,
whether there is a preference from a particular age group could also be identified.

40
 These two models DMP and TAM will help to analyses the sub research questions,
which will ultimately help to evaluate the main research question ‘Do millennials (age 19-25
by 2020) differ in their evaluation and use of supermarkets from other age groups?’

Chapter Summary

This chapter has discussed the external forces (PESTEL) effecting the supermarket industry
and analysed Porters Five Forces and how the supermarket industry treat these forces to
overcome challenges. On the second part the theoretic model (DMP) and how consumers are
going through this process whilst grocery shopping was discussed. Finally, the new
technological developments industry such as online deliveries and how this may differentiate
based on age was discussed.

Chapter Three will present the Literature cited on supermarket industry and how
consumer behaviour is challenging the industry. Further how based on various demographic
factors consumer behaviour is changing. How the generations are grouped according to their
age category and the challenges for the industry from the behaviour of Millennials.

41
Chapter 3 - Literature Review

Introduction

Supermarkets dominates the consumer market of everyday consumables or groceries.

Therefore, visiting a supermarket has become a routine in everyone’s life. As a result, the
supermarket business has become an important industry in many countries in the world. The
changing lifestyle of consumers is a key influence in changing the models of supermarkets.
Supermarkets have come up with various differentiated concepts such as low-cost
supermarkets, online delivery stores, high quality supermarkets as few examples. As the
supermarket industry relies on consumers, an understanding of different consumer behaviors
is of high importance for the industry. Buying behaviour and the decision-making process are
widely researched topics among both researchers and marketers in recent years. Consumer
decision making can be different based on their age, gender, level of education and civil status.
Correlation of some of these factors in terms of decision making can easily be identified
whereas others may be difficult to understand. Different consumer profiles are used by the
consumer affairs professionals to understand the consumer purchasing behavior while
marketers use them to segment the consumers into various groups for product positioning (Al-
Mamun, Permarupan, Zainol, & Muniady, 2014). This literature review will investigate the
supermarket industry, its developments over the years and what are the challenges it faces
today. On the other hand, how consumer behaviour is changing with the generations and what
differences they impose with regard to grocery shopping. Further how supermarkets are
challenged with the new needs and wants of various generations.

3.1 Development of the Supermarket industry

Supermarket industry development is a topic which has been widely researched. This chapter
will review the literature presented on the supermarket development and, identify present-day
challenges and investigate how supermarkets are trying to overcome the same. More emphasis
is given on supermarket industry in Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) context.

42
According to Reardon and Gulati (2008) in 1878 an owner of a small tea shop in the US got
the idea of developing chain stores across the cities. Intention was to purchase bulk from
Chinese suppliers to reduce cost and to have multiple stores to sell the goods. This was the
birth of the modern-day chain supermarkets. This supermarket chain was none other than The
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) chain which was later developed as a major
supermarket chain across the globe. The founders ae namely George Gilman and George
Huntington Hartford. Opening the first outlet in 1936, by 1950 A&P had become the second
largest supermarket chain by sales, in the world.

In 1960’s a small store in a rural village call Arkansas in US was started by Sam Walton.
By 1962 this store was further developed and named Walmart which is the birth of the first
store. It was remodeled to the large store in 1970 which was to lead the revolution in the
supermarket industry.

There is evidence of failing of A&P and the success of Walmart on identifying customer
needs and perceptions. Up until 1960’s supermarkets couldn’t offer fresh foods which were
always purchased from the small outlets such as fruit sellers and supermarkets had to honor the
consumer interests and desires. According to Alexander, Nell, Bailey and Shaw (2009) post
second world war, which changed the whole concept of supermarket industry in Britain. The
preliminary benefits to the customers was saving time, one-stop shop, variety of goods and low
prices. The convenience to consumers led the industry to grow rapidly. In 1947 the number of
stores in UK were ten, which gradually expanded up to five hundred by 1950. By 1960 it grew
to more than 6,300 across the whole Britain. As the number of stores increased, the industry
grew which resulted competition. Supermarkets tried to be innovative to be more competitive.
They started a program to understand consumer behavior. Supermarkets identified a segment
of customers called housewives or homemakers in 1960’s who were the main influences or the
group who physically arrived at the shop. This program was to identify their needs and wants.
Identifying customer needs had always driven the developments of the supermarket industry.

43
 Alexander, Nell, Bailey and Shaw (2009) revealed that in basic trade definition in the
late 1960’s a supermarket should not be less than 2000 square feet in UK and should have at
least three checkout counters. It was relatively small compared to North America which was
18,000 square feet. When the popularity of supermarket increased the number of outlets
increased simultaneously, resulting in competition. Supermarkets had the challenges of lack of
systems and infrastructure development which resulted an overall revenue drop in the industry.
The development of staff and obtaining financial assistance to expand the size of the
supermarkets did happen. By 1963 supermarkets had implemented offering various discount
schemes. Further concentrated on being more convenient to customers and store size keep
expanding more and more.

According to Ellickson (2016) there are four main evolutions in supermarket industry.
First was the chain store development by A&P group. The second was bringing all economies
of scale under the same room as variety of brands under the same roof, which exists today. The
third evolution is computerization and development of supply chain and finally the concept of
national chains such as Wal-Mart.

The development of these models had been driven by changing consumer behavior and
demand. This demand had created more competition and industry had grown rapidly. Further
Ellickson (2016) stated that by the 1970’s the key aspects of the industry was the scale of the
operation, space of the store, parking and pricing strategy of the supermarkets. According to
Burch, Dixon and Lawrence (2013) at the same time 1970’s agriculture was also fully vertically
integrated by a concept called supply chain management which is where production,
distribution and retailing are managed altogether. Large firms as Unilever, Heinz and Nestles
had invested in agricultural business by which they bypassed the local farmers and were
sourcing fruits and vegetables for manufacturing of their own food items. A lot of studies
(Aburto & Weber, 2007; Fearne, 1998; Keegan, Callaghan, & Wilcox, 2001) have also
highlighted that the development of supply chain management has resulted a rapid growth in
supermarket industry.The intergration of links from dairyand other farmers to warehouses to
supermarkets has drasticaly increased the efficency which has resulted in more variety and
fresher produce in the stores. It has developed to a stage whereby in 1975 the US base

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conglomerate Tenneco (the supermarket brand) was claiming they control the business from
farm to supermarket.

According to Reardon, Timmer, Barret and Berdegue (2003) in the 1980’s a social and
cultural change started in Europe and US as women started working which also changed the
whole culture and economy. Both men and women working in the same family resulted in less
time for food preparation and more income for the families. This created more demand for
processed food. Further they stated that by 1990 the usage of refrigerators had become popular
which helped consumers to purchase perishable food weekly or monthly in bulk which they
could store. This changed the habit of purchasing perishable foods daily from the local
vegetable store to a much more convenient supermarket. Supermarkets understood the growing
needs of consumers and developed their product range along with parking facilities, which
helped the growing demand of personal vehicle usage. Most importantly by 1990’s Europe and
US were open for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) which resulted in foreign investment and
the widespread establishment of international supermarkets across US and Europe.

Another area of study by many researchers are the development of technology in the
supermarket industry. Fu and Su (2014) states the development of technology gave the birth to
the modern-day model of supermarket. The development of software operating systems and
checkouts or cashiers with barcode scanners are some developments of technology in
supermarket industry. Further Ge, Yang, Proudlove and Spring (2004) states the development
of information technology has also resulted in changing communication method in between
suppliers and supermarkets. Fax and e mail became the communication modes. The developed
operation software systems helped supermarkets to expand their operations to multiple stores
as the co-ordination was much easier and centralized. It helped supermarkets to communicate
and coordinate with suppliers, warehouse and more easily.

Another development in the industry is the logistics division which co-ordinates the
distribution and storing of goods. The present supermarkets model is based on the concept of
supply chain, which is managing the suppliers, transportation, warehousing and bringing goods
to the store on time. According to Steeneken and Ackley (2012) regardless of the size and the
number of outlets which a supermarket brand has, the efficiency of the supply chain

45
management is the key success of the company. The number of channels involved may differ
such as number of suppliers, intermediaries, distributors and warehouse suppliers depending
on the size of the supermarket brand, but the functional model is the same. Supermarket
companies have to maintain and adhere to this procedure for their success of operations.
According to Kaufman (1995) by 1990’s the competition was substantial between
supermarkets. This was created by the consumers’ demand. Supermarkets understood different
consumers have different requirements. Therefore, supermarkets tried different models to serve
different segments of customers. Various types of supermarkets were adopted.

Conventional format store - which is a full-service supermarket which sells groceries. The
product range is not less than 9000 products on average.

Superstore - which is much bigger and has a wider range of groceries and also general
merchandise,

Warehouse store which has a fewer range on groceries but a cheaper average price.

Super warehouse - store which has a range of groceries and other products varying from
general merchandise to hardware and cheaper in price,

Combination food and drug store(chemist) –which has a drugstore inside the supermarket
apart from all other product range on above stored

Hypermarkets - The largest supermarket format with all the merchandise, groceries and drug
stores inside.

These varieties of supermarkets were targeting different types of customers based on

their perception and requirements. In US by 1980’s to 1990’s the growth of grocery sales in
supermarkets increased by 3.14%, which proves the popularity of supermarkets kept on the
rise. The prevalence of consumers increased with the development of large supermarkets with
ample parking, and all the necessities under one roof (Pandhi & Siddhpuria, 2015). According
to Greenly and Shipley (1992) supermarkets have many features such as a wide choice of
products, late night opening, and adequate parking along with proper directions to find the
required goods easily. They continue that supermarkets invest in good marketing teams to
understand the customer better and work on the customer retention strategies. These growing
concerns about customer needs and wants to keep growing the supermarket industry. Lee

46
(1991) states today supermarkets have Deli’s and bakeries inside the premises in addition to
the grocery and other merchandise. This is to encourage customers to spend more time in the
store which will result in more money spent inside the store. Supermarkets are trying to
diversify the product range and features. According to Sinha (2000) the key features which
give supermarkets the competitive advantage over other shops are wide range of
products, easy access, ample parking, attractive layout, fast checkouts and usage of credit/debit
card facilities.

According to Reardon and Gulati (2008) from 1990 to 2000 the changes in political
systems and legislation acts to liberalize the retail industry and globalization had affected the
emergence of international supermarkets around the world. Developing continents such as
Africa ,Asia and Latin America had a spectacular growth rate in increase number of
supermarkets.

Due to rapid globalization the competition amongst retail markets increased

dramatically. Hanus (2018) stated that globalization has impacted the food and grocery industry
in many aspects. It has combined the national and regional markets together as consumers today
demand for international brands and different ethnic specialties. With the development of
technology this demand is being catered by the supermarkets providing a wide variety of
products from around the world. Further globalization has led consumer behavior into a new
direction through global trends. Functional food, organic food or individualized products are
some examples of the new trends in consumer behavior. According to Reardon, Henson and
Gulati (2010) with the development of the supermarket industry in developed countries, the
diffusion of brands is happening globally. Globalization and open economies are attracting this
more. One of the key concepts the global supermarket brands adapt to is encouraging the local
produce and culture. Globalization has helped the supermarket industry to grow industry as
well more competitive.

The study by Neale and Fullerton (2010) found that consumer behavior in different
regions differs even in the same industry. Authors revealed that Australians and Europeans
have similarities in accepting the ethical practices of companies but differ from Africans.

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Further the supermarket model differs from region to region depending on the consumer
demand and market size. The next section focuses on the literature concentrated on Oceania
(Australia and New Zealand) region and how it differs from other parts of the world.

3.1.1 Supermarket industry in Oceania (Australia and New Zealand)

Authors Jacenko and Gunasekera (2005) revealed during 2003-2004 the Australian retail
business was valued at AUD 193.3 billion out of which 62% was valued at supermarkets and
grocery sales. Australia had two main chains of supermarkets controlling the grocery business,
Woolworths and Coles. Australia supermarket industry market share is quite different
compared to other developed countries such as Canada, Singapore or UK. There is a duopoly
is the market by Woolworts and Coles controlling market share as 76% of groceries in 2001.
However, in the same year the foreign owned supermarket chain Aldi invested in Australia and
anticipated to gain a decent market share breaking the duopoly. Yet the market share in 2004
were standing at 76% of the main to supermarkets brands (Burch , Dixon, & Lawrence, 2013).
Grimmer (2018) revealed that even though the multinational supermarket chains such as Aldi
(German) and Costco (US) have arrived in Australia and are getting popular amongst
consumers , there are many factors to hold back their market share getting increased. Both
Woolworths and Coles are backed by the giant parent companies. Woolworths Limited and
Wesfarmers respectively. which have control over many industries such as petrol stations.
Caltex controlled by Woolworths and British Petroleum by Wesfarmers. In addition, with the
scale on which they operate in, suppliers such as farmers have to rely on supplying to these two
giants even with low margins. These factors give the giant supermarkets a competitive
advantage. These giant companies have a bigger range of produce than international brands,
Therefor consumers have to rely on them visiting at least once a week either one of these two
supermarkets.

Referring to New Zealand History (2015) revealed that the first one stop shop in New
Zealand was Four square which was opened in Devonport Auckland in 1957 by Bill Miller.
The first supermarket developed was Foodtown, the all convenient store in Otahuhu in 1958
with 118 car slots for parking. Later the Australian supermarket chain Woolworths were
established in 1964. Developing over years New Zealand supermarket industry has become a
large industry spreading across both North Island and South Island. There are 3519 business
registered under supermarkets in New Zealand with 61,400 employees working (Sats NZ,

48
2018). According to Mhurchu, et al (2015) there are three main supermarket brands under two
parent companies. Foodstuffs which has major brands as PAK’nSAVE and New World which
has about 54% market share in grocery business, and Progressive which operates Countdown
with 38% market share. Referring to Australian and New Zealand supermarket industry there
are similarities as main supermarket chain dominates the industry. According to (Radio New
Zealand, 2009) a professor stated that both New Zealand and Australia have a duopoly in the
supermarket industry. However figures on Figure NZ (2020) shows that sale volume growth in
supermarket industry over the last years is 15% since 2013 up to 2019 whilst the non-store and
commissioned based retailing industry is at a growth rate of 98% in the same period. There are
many challenges for supermarket industry in modern day. A lot of studies around the world
have identified that the supermarket industry is being challenged. The following section will
emphasize the studies on challenges in the supermarket industry.

3.1.2 Challenges supermarkets are facing today

Many researchers posit that present-day supermarkets are facing a lot of challenges
due to various factors. Delforce, Dickson and Hogan (2005) Stats that consumer behavior is
changing as consumers get more choices today. Technology has helped to get information on
products and prices easily through Internet. Therefore, supermarkets keep trying to reduce cost.
Supermarkets are using technology as well to manage logistics facilities. This has resulted them
to cut cost on distribution. Further supermarkets are coming up with their own brands range to
offer competitive products.

In Poland supermarkets are getting tough competition from the low cost discount
stores, which are getting popular amongst consumers with the convenience and low price
(Rudawska & Reformat, 2018) . Even though technology has helped the supermarket industry
to grow, other researchers (Mkansi, Leeuw & Amosun, 2020; Barlie, Polese & Sarno, 2018)
declare technology has encouraged consumers to be more demanding. Internet and mobile
phones have given consumers the opportunity to explore more about their products and lowest
price offers. Further the online delivery companies are getting more popular as technology had
been a convenient approach in ordering groceries. There is a segment of customers who are

49
only concerned about convenience, and the concept of brick and mortar stores is fading away
from their minds.

According to Saleheen,Miraz,Habib and Hanaf (2014) another challenge for the

supermarket industry is large warehouse operators. These warehouse operators have economy
of scale and are able to compete with the supermarkets on price, flexibility and warehouse
design. There are more customers attracted towards these large-scale warehouse operators to
make bulk purchases and this has become a growing threat for the traditional supermarkets.
The large scale supermarkets as explained in a previous paragraph as super warehouses,
hypermarkets etc. are challenging the traditional supermarket.

Researching the supermarket industry in New Zealand the changing consumer behavior
has resulted the way supermarkets approach customers as well. According to supermarketnews
(2020) supermarket chains such as New World and Countdown have realized the changing
consumer behavior and the demand towards technology driven segment. Countdown is coming
up with a more sophisticated online delivery system and a store in Auckland which will be
dedicated for online deliveries only. New World is developing a supermarket smart trolley with
an inbuilt tablet which will give consumers ease to handle their shopping list more efficiently.
Present research into the challenges and development of supermarket industry and
technological advancements indicate the main influencer in this change is consumer behavior.
It is important to research and understand consumer behavior in the supermarket industry. The
following chapter will present the findings on consumer behavior.

3.2 Consumer behaviour

Different authors and researchers have tried to provide a definition for consumer buying
behaviour according to their own perceptions and experiences. When analysing the different
definitions presented it is evident that authors and researchers have identified two different
perspectives for consumer behaviour, one is from the customer’s perspective and other is from
the marketer’s perspectives. According to American Marketing Association (AMA) consumer
behaviour is defined as the “dynamic interaction of cognition, behaviour and environmental

50
events by which human beings conduct the exchange aspect of their lives with various social
and psychological variables at play” from both the consumer’s perspective and marketer’s
perspective. It can also be considered that academics are trying to highlight the importance of
studying separate aspects of consumer behaviour and at the same time indicating the co-relation
of both. However, considering the present social context and close association people have
with technology, it definitely plays a vital role in the decision-making process of today’s
consumers. Therefore, apart from the two-perspectives presented by previous authors and
researchers on consumer behaviour, modern day authors argue technology too could be
considered as a vital aspect in terms of consumer behaviour and decision-making process
(Prasad, Nurunnobi, & Arifuzzaman, 2016). They further emphasise that identification of the
different factors that influence the final purchase decision would be key to success for any
retailer. The companies involved in marketing, faces huge challenges due to the
competitiveness in industries. Among these challenges, attracting more customers in favour of
their own products or services is a higher priority than every other aspect in any company’s
marketing plan (Stankevich, 2017). In order to achieve this, every retailer needs to closely
study the consumer’s buying behaviour patterns that would influence the consumer’s decision-
making process which was discussed in chapter two. Kotler (2012) highlighted the importance
for companies to understand how different individuals, groups or societies buy, consume and
dispose the goods they purchase. Authors Huddleston, Whipple and Vanauken (2004) further
support Kotler’s view by stating that economic trends, changing consumer demographics,
changing family dynamics and developments in the industry have created more competitive
retail industry. According to Hansen,Jensen and Solgaard (2011) further indicate that consumer
behaviour is an impact that can be created by the company’s marketing decisions. Therefore,
it can be argued that consumer behaviour and the decision-making process are two interrelated
elements with a cohesive chain of activities which influence one another. Decision making
process (DMP) is a theoretical model which marketers can trace and monitor decision making
process of consumers from the start to end (Kotler, 2012). Next section of literature review will
broadly focus on how consumer behaviour is researched in supermarket industry.

3.2.1 Consumer behaviour and supermarket industry

According to Sreelata, Narasimham and Gupta (2013) today’s consumers have less
time but more spending capacity, ease of shopping and convenience is a key deciding factor

51
for a place to shop and most preferably a “one stop shop”. Researchers Aldousari and El-Sayed
(2017) highlighted the number of opening hours is a key focus of consumers when deciding
which supermarket to shop at. Further they claimed this is due to the busy lifestyle of customers
who prefer to finish shopping by one or two days in a week. Mahlangu and Khathutshelo (2019)
presented similar findings on consumers requiring convenience as they seek wide product
range, easy access and layout of products along with supportive staff and fast checkout
counters.As per them all customers’ requirements are the same. However, Prasad (2016)
discussed about two different segments of customers. One segment prefer convenience, wide
product range, usage of credit/debit card facilities whilst the other segment of customers which
are keener on price. Therefore, author states that supermarkets should focus on different
segments of customers with different requirements. According to Singh, Hansen and Blattberg
(2006) big supermarkets as Walmart had understood the consumer behavior more as some
customers are not necessarily keen on convenience and it has a cross connection to the size of
their food basket. Walmart had gained a competitive advantage from their pricing strategy
which is 15% less than competition and goes with the super hypermarket concept. This concept
has helped Walmart to convince consumers to visit the store regardless of the distance to the
store.

A study conducted by Hansen, Denmark,Jensen and Solgaard (2011) claimed the

balance between product, price and quality is a challenge for any of the supermarkets. They
further stated there are three segments of customers who differ in behavior. Consumers who
expect high quality products and will pay a premium, consumers who require quality products
at a competitive price and consumers who go for lowest price while not expecting high quality
products. The majority of customers fall under the second category of quality products at a
competitive price and supermarkets tend to cater this segment more. As per the researchers
there are different segments of consumers who have different needs and wants. Understanding
these requirements will be beneficial for the supermarket industry.

Some researchers revealed that layout, ambiance and interior of the supermarket also
has a direct impact on influencing the consumer behavior. According to Mohan, Sivakumaran
and Sharma (2013) supermarket layout plays a major role in influencing consumers “impulsive
buying behavior” or the urge of buying goods without a pre-plan. Further, they suggested that

52
retailers should focus on supportive staff, lights and music as shoppers evaluate the
environment in “Gestalt terms”. Which is the appealing an individual could get by seen visuals
(Interaction-design.org, 2020). Similar results have been revealed by Dijksterhuis,
Smith,Baaren and Wigboldus (2005) as playing music inside the supermarket influences the
subconscious mind of consumers and puts them in a mood to shop more. They further stated
that the type of music influenced differently on product choices as playing French music let
customers opting to buy more French wine and wise versa German music on German products.

Some researchers argued that customer perception is the only key factor in
determining the repurchase of a product. Consumer behavior has been the key determinant
to transform the industry from the traditional retailing to modern day retailing such as
discount stores, convenience stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets. Many studies have been
conducted to understand the process of psychological factors affecting the consumers. Even
though there are many studies focusing on consumer perspectives in selecting a certain
supermarket brand there’s no firm confirmation about which behavioral factor is more
influential when selecting a supermarket.

According to (Aslam, Jadoon & Zaman, 2011; Cheung, Lee & Thadani,2009) there is
a different area which has being researched as the power of word of mouth. Whether it be
conventional shopping or online shopping human beings tend to get feedback from others prior
to deciding on a place to shop. Further, a bad reputation may also lead into negative publicity
by word of mouth.

Researchers emphasized consumer decision making is a vast complicated process and

needs attention to many details by the marketers. As explained in the previous section there are
numerous factors that need to be taken into consideration by the marketers before delivering
their products or services on consumer’s hand. To steer consumers towards a certain product
or service the marketers need to understand the consumer’s needs. There are various marketing
activities done by supermarkets. Reviewing their effectiveness of how consumers are accepting
the same would be beneficial for the marketers. Out of which there are two key areas which
has been potentially focused by past studies. Supermarket marketing strategies such as sales

53
promotional activities such as special price deals on various products. Another key focus area
is how supermarkets managing their public relations, how they care for the society and
environment. Whether this has an impact on gaining more customers had being looked in. The
following paragraphs will present the findings on these two focus areas.

3.2.2 Consumer perception towards special price deals

One key area of research in which supermarkets get involved is sales promotions and
special deals. According to Chapman, Nicholas, Banovic, & Supramaniam, (2006)
supermarkets are engaged in promotions specifically targeting the children. Further, they stated
that during school holidays the number of promotions are more. This has resulted in increasing
short term sales for supermarkets. Some customers have criticized this strategy by
supermarkets. Similar results were revealed by Wilkenson,Mason and Paksov (1982) which
stated supermarkets used various short term sale increase strategies such as reduced price,
expanded displays and advertising which have resulted in increased short term sales. However,
there was no evidence on customer feedback nor long term sale revenue. A different area of
study showed sales promotions or special deals are effective but has a direct co-relation to
demographic factors such as income level (Haans & Gijsbrechts, 2011). However, there’s a
different finding on the other hand which states that demographic factors such as gender or
education level doesn’t have a direct influence on promotions (Patel, 2011).There are different
findings and views on this subject. According to Huddleston, Whipple and VanAuken (2003)
price is only a factor to attract customers but not a main factor for customer loyalty. These
findings have led to a different area of study such as customer loyalty cards. According to
Brumley (2002) many supermarkets are offering loyalty programs to their customers in the
form of discounted prices, raffle draws and partner promotions. Nevertheless, it is hard to find
the effectiveness of these loyalty promotions as there are two directive perspectives. On the
supermarkets’ side the usage of loyalty programs to gather customer data had been successful.
But Brumley further stated that from consumer point of view loyalty program doesn’t add more
value than to a weekly sales promotion. A similar study conducted by Sharp & Sharp (1997)
and revealed an analogous result as loyalty programs or cards doesn’t have a big influence on
continued purchases; even though it’s one of the marketing tools.

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 3.2.3 Consumer attitudes towards social and environmental activities undertaken by
supermarkets

Another perspective which researchers have investigated is the ethical business

practices which supermarkets are involved in and the influence towards consumers. Ethical
practices are important for any of the organization in modern day society. According to Barton
(2007) Sainsbury England plastic bag campaign “Ï am not a plastic bag” was an initiative to
issue environment friendly plastic free bags. Later a reveal on labor rights in the company
which manufactured these in China became a debate over authorities in Britain. Later when
Sainsbury’s tried solving the issue of their supplier in China there was a debate amongst many
industry specialists. This created an uncertainty in consumers mind as whether Sainsbury was
trying to get a leverage from their marketing campaign It is believed Sainsbury lost their sales
over this incident and the whole campaign was a failure. On the other hand Rohwer and Topic
(2019) revealed the success of the same supermarket chain Sainsbury Cooperation Partnership
with famous NGO Comic relief. The consumers accepted the fact that Sainsbury care for the
community. Consumers were more influenced to purchase from Sainsbury with this positive
ethical practice which were in the top of the minds of the consumers. Similar results were
revealed by Munyoki & Benjamin (2013) as there’s a direct impact on social responsibility
acts by supermarkets towards to their market share. At present consumers are very concerned
about the rankings of the supermarket on ethical behavior. According to Ferdous & Aziz
(2014) consumers with higher education levels are more concern about the ethical factor
which the supermarket follows. A similar study in the UK has documented that consumers do
measure the corporate social responsibility activities done by a supermarket and consumers
are willing to select those supermarkets, whilst willing to pay a premium (Lauritsen & Perks,
2015). Most of the previous studies only focus on ethical factors which have an influence on
consumers. However, there are no adequate studies conducted on how ethical factors influence
various customer segments in terms of consumer behavior. Future research on investigating
how various customer segments, for instance different age groups, react to ethical factors
would provide benefits from the marketer’s perspectives in terms of planning their product
offerings.

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 According to Velez (2003) consumer decision on which supermarket to choose is
complex, there’s no supermarket brand which has achieved 100% customer base, as customers’
perception about price and quality may vary and the decisions may change from time to time.
Human beings are not alike; therefore, segmenting customers and understanding their needs
and wants in a complex way may help supermarkets to attract more consumers. In addition to
the factors discussed above some researchers have identified age as a key demographic factor
in consumer decision making process.

3.3 Impact of demographic factors on consumer behaviour

There are many past studies done on the subject of consumer behaviour based on
demographic factors (Bashar, Ahmad & Wasiq, 2013; Kotler & Keller, 2016; Jadhav &
Khanna,2017) In terms of consumer behaviour identifying demographics are some of the key
influencing factors related to purchasing patterns as consumer decision making can be different
based on age, gender, level of education, income level etc. Correlation of some of these factors
in terms of decision making could be easily identified whereas others may be difficult to
understand. Previous literature emphasized that influence of demographic factors is key in
consumer decision making and acts as the foundation for formulating the. Identification of
numerous different factors that influence the final purchase decision is the key to success for
any business and retail industry (Prasad, Nurunnobi, & Arifuzzaman, 2016). According to
Mahlangu & Makhitha (2019) age and income level plays a significant role by segmenting
different purchase behaviors. Designing the ambiance and layout is an important fact. They
also stated that the age group between 18-24 are significantly conscious about gratification or
the satisfaction get through the shopping experience. Therefor supermarkets should focus on
hedonic features as inbuilt restaurants and cafes. whilst the age groups 25-35 and 35-45 are
more concerned about the layout and easy access to checkout counters. Their research found
that the earning group US$800-US$1500 monthly are more concerned about discounted prices,
promotions whilst the income group between US$1500-US$2500 are more concerned about
the branded product range. Matić (2013) revealed a different co-relation to demography
factoring consumer behavior by age and education level. They discussed “consumer
ethnocentric tendencies” which is the tendency towards culture or support the country produce
and found that young people with a level of high education have more tendency towards
purchasing products locally manufactured than elderly people. Demographic factors may have

56
a direct influence on consumer decision making. The following section focuses on literature
relating to demographic factors and consumer behavior.

Involvement of different factors has made consumer buying behaviour quite complex
and these factors that influence consumer behaviour may differ from person to person, situation
to situation and place to place. Therefore, having a baseline knowledge about the consumer
and their behavioural pattern is essential for marketers in terms of strategy development
(Sanlier & Karakus, 2010). According to Armstrong, Adam, Denize, Volkov and Kotler (2018)
out of all the demographic factors, generations have the biggest influence on consumer decision
making, as needs and wants may differ from different age groups. Demographic factors such
as age can be an influential factor to decide on the supermarket of choice. Muniady R. , Al-
Mamun, Permarupan and Zainol (2014) stated that these different consumer profiles are used
by the consumer affairs professionals to understand the consumer purchasing behavior while
marketers use them to segment the consumers into various groups for product positioning.
Dividing consumers into groups by age and trying to understand their behavior and requirements are so
called generational marketing (Armstrong, Adam, Denize, Volkov, & Kotler, 2018, p. 76).

There are various generational definitions based on cultural, political and economic influences.
Different generations can be categorized as shown in the following figure.

Figure 3. 2 The generations

From Which generation are you?, by (Robinson,2017),
https://www.careerplanner.com/Career-Articles/Generations.cfm

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 According to Kotler, Brown, Adam and Armstrong (2007) the main three generations
are the Baby Boomers born between 1946 to 1964, Generation X born in between 1965 to 1976
and Millennial born in between 1977 to 2000. As the first generation to be born with the
technology, millennials are the most educated out of all. They are a tech-savvy segment who
uses credit cards to online payment options. The traditional advertising channels sometimes
does not capture this segment. Grocery shopping is common to all segments of generations,
but millennial segment requirements may differ from others.

3.3.1 Who are Millennial generation?

Reviewing past studies there are lot of definitions on millennials and years they are
born. According to Lu, Bock and Joseph (2013) it is the generation of 21st century and
classified as the age group between 18-34. According to Severo, Guimarães, Dellarmelin and
Ribeiro (2019) Millennials are the age group born after 1981. Similarly Edu, Nedricea ,
Haydam and Avram (2019) had also considered the millennial segment as the age group in
between 1984-1989. According to books published by the authors (Armstrong, Adam, Denice,
Volkov & Kotler, 2018; Solomon, Bennett & Previte, 2013) they define the generational group
Millennials as the group born in between 1985-2002. Considering the past research conducted
in NZ Erlam, Smythe and Wright (2016) have considered generation millennials as those born
in between years 1982-2000. Various Authors and researchers define their own term for
millennials. This is due to the challenge they face with the years of study. Nevertheless, all the
researchers had identified millennials as a generation which has distinguished differences to
other generations. The next part will elaborate the findings on millennial perception.

3.3.2 Millennials as consumers

Ordun (2015) revealed that Millennial’s are the group who follow the trend or what is famous
at that time, mostly. This is due to the usage of social media more than other age groups. They
are influenced mainly by social media more than traditional advertising and mostly follow the
ideas of virtual friends than real friends. Being the largest population size of all the generations,
the usage of social media has a big influence on their parents as well the rest of the world to be
opinion leaders. Helal, Ozuem and Lancaster (2018) study revealed similar findings, authors
states “Millennials rely on social media as an outlet to trending worldwide topics”. They are

58
the group who are very active on all social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or
Twitter. Whatever the information they receive, it gets spread very quickly through social
media.

Some of the marketers in the fashion industry and other industries are using social
media as an advertising platform to market their products to this age segment, as it was very
effective. Febriana and Yunus (2019) highlights success of the advertising through online
platforms as the most effective in order to target the millennial generation. Social media is a
two-way communication platform from which supermarkets will get the opportunity to get the
feedback from millennial population, who prefer online activities rather than traditional. Also,
it is a very cost-effective method to cover a large audience specially when considering the
millennial generation. Smith (2011) highlights results as millennials prefer to give their
feedback online, further it’s more encouraging if a reward such as a coupon is offered.

3.3.3 The challenge from millennials to supermarkets

According to Grev (2016) brand perception and purchasing decisions vary from
Millennials to non-millennials. Considering purchasing brands Millennials prefer mainly niche
products which are they consider to be healthier whereas rest of the generations prefer brand
names. Millennial’s are not mainly concerned about large brands, but very concern about
details of the labels such as gluten free or health conscious. Dabija, Bejan and Tipi (2018)
millennials prefer to read the product specification online where as other generations may read
the product label. Millennials are not very keen on understanding the product quality by reading
the specifications and prefer the reviews of online community. Burger (2014) reveals that when
it comes to online purchases, millennials always compare the price, quality or shipping policy
by reading the reviews. Unless there are positive reviews millennials will be less interested to
purchase from that seller. Further millennials prefer faster shipping and reputation over web
portals, such as Amazon. Millennials are not very keen on writing their own review unless it is
really necessary. According to Kuhns and Saksena (2017) when it comes to purchasing of food
items, millennials prefer mostly the prepared food, process food such as bread items, baby
food, snacks. From the shopping basket they devote least to grains or poultry which need food
preparation. The millennial generation mainly prefers ready to eat or precooked food items in
their shopping basket when doing groceries.

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 Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a significant area of concern among
millennials as they are more concern about social and environmentally friendly activities.
Lowes (2015) explained the importance of CSR activities of a company specifically to the age
group millennial. Comparatively to other age groups millennials are very knowledgeable about
company’s corporate social responsibility activities and had become a main influencing factor
in making their decisions over purchasing goods from that company. (Harun, Prybutok, &
Prybutok, 2018) revealed that Millennial’s are very concerned about the corporate social
responsibility (CSR)of the fast food outlets in the US. There is a big tendency from this age
group to purchase fast food from the outlets which are more engaged in CSR activities.
According to (Septiari & Kusuma, 2016)

Millennials least prefer the traditional markets to purchase the grocery which involves
lot of interactions between seller. The only reason millennial uses the traditional grocery stores
is because been close to reach. According to supermarketnews (2020) online delivery is
becoming very famous in New Zealand. Countdown supermarket is specifically concentrating
on online deliveries which is rapidly growing according to them. According to Mitchell
(2019)The dimensions of supermarket grocery shopping has being rapidly changing due to the
demand on technology by millennials, subscription boxes with essential groceries and online
ordering is getting more popular. There could be significant influence on development of
technology and usage in grocery shopping mainly influenced by millennials. The following
chapter will discuss on the findings’

3.4 E-commerce and online delivery of groceries.

According to Ciancio (2017) the birth of the E-commerce platform was `born out of an
actual necessity of an old lady call Jane Snowball in England. She typed a shopping list to
Tesco supermarket as she was unable to visit the store to purchase the groceries. This idea was
later developed by British entrepreneur Michael Aldrich in 1979 using a telephone system
connected to the television. He created a system to order groceries from supermarket online.
This invention later became a multi-million dollar industry which the global giants as Amazon,

60
E bay are based on. Globalization and demand created from consumers has led to this e
commerce industry becoming a multi-billion dollar industry lately. The online ordering
platform has both advantages and disadvantages and it may differ from industry and country.
Understanding consumer behavior on e-commerce or online ordering is important for all the
industries. According to Gupta and Sethi (2016) there is a direct co-relation to the product type
which customers will order online. Electronics were in less demand compared to clothing
ordering online. Further they claimed that women have a higher tendency of ordering online
than men. The younger generation are more likely to use this method as they are more
technologically advanced and equipped compared to other age groups. According to Chiou,
Chou and Shen (2017) there is a co-relation between the service of brick and mortar
stores(traditional store) and online ordering. When customer have a positive relationship with
the store staff the tendency of that customer to order goods online is high. These could be the
set of loyal customers who prefer to spend more time in the store. They further claim that there
is another type of customer who insists on multichannel purchases. This set of customers is
more concerned about their convenience. They suggest companies should always maintain
online and traditional platforms to cater to different types of customers. According to (Quader
& Shahedul, 2008) most of the UK based supermarket chains such as Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco
and Safeway started using third party online based companies to deliver their supermarket
groceries. The online delivery services were handled separately as another entity to the parent
company. These online grocery stores have started competing in the online delivery market by
trying to beat one another in their systems and delivery partnerships (Financial Management,
2000). The researchers (Melis, Campo, Breugelmans, & Lamey, 2015) suggested that it is
important for a supermarket to maintain a balance between online and offline experiences.
They stated that the supermarkets which maintain the same offers in both modes and have an
attractive presence have more customer loyalty.

However, research with regard to which age category prefers online delivery most lead
into a debate as (Bauerova, 2019) revealed that there is no co-relation on generations (different
age groups such as Generation X and Y) and online ordering. The main generations (Generation
X & Y) are adopting to the changes in technology which opt them to use the new methods such
as ordering online groceries. Supporting this view (Lubis & Utara, 2018) revealed from their
research that age doesn’t have an influence to select online grocery shopping over traditional
shopping in person. Nevertheless, there is a difference in behavior with regard to gender and

61
income level Males tend to purchase online more than females whilst high income group also
has a tendency to purchase online groceries more than low income groups. On the other hand
(Kim & Ammeter, 2018) revealed generations have different views when it comes to
purchasing online, according to them the young generation or the millennials who are much
more connected to internet, mobile phones and technology is the largest group to purchase
online. Research into grocery delivery satisfaction (Sreeram, Kesharwani & Ankit, 2017;
Bauerova, 2019) has no proof on customer loyalty and full acceptance of online grocery
approach There is not much research with regard to supermarket grocery shopping experience
and satisfaction of consumers. Researching supermarket industry in New Zealand, reviewing
(supermarketnews, 2020) it is evident that out of three main supermarket chains the company
which is actively involved in online delivery is Countdown. There is a lack of research in the
context of New Zealand to understand the acceptance of online grocery deliveries and whether
there is a demographic relationship specifically with age related different needs and wants.

Conclusion for Chapter 3

This literature review discussed the beginning of the first supermarket in 1936 in the
US and the transformation of the industry up to date and the supermarket industry in Oceania
region which is Australia and New Zealand and how it differs from rest of the world. The
supermarket industry developments and changes were driven by main factors of changing
consumer behavior and technological development. Nevertheless, changing consumer trends
are creating a threat for supermarkets at present day making the industry more challenging.
Consumer behavior is one key factor which research has identified as driving the changes in
the industry. Past literature recognizes a direct co-relation between consumer behavior and how
it differs based on the demographic factors such as age, gender and income level. Consumer
behavior research recognizes age as a key influence on behavior but has not specifically
captured the importance of age affected by the millennial generation. The millennial generation
is, generally accepted as those born in the years between 1985-2002, and research recognizes
there is debate but also a broad acceptance that this generation has the potential to bring changes
in marketers’ ability to influence consumer behavior. Another aspect of changing consumer
behavior is technology and development of new grocery delivery platform. Existing literature
does lead a debate as to whether there is a preference by the millennial generation to use online

62
deliveries more than others. There are several gaps identified in past studies on how the
millennial generation influences the purchase of groceries in a supermarket and also what
criteria they prioritize and how they measure the convenience and acceptance of technology.

Chapter four will discuss on the methods used for the research and why was that
approached used. How the other studies had conducted consumer behavioural research and the
best suitable framework to follow.

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Chapter 4 Research Methodology

Chapter overview
This chapter explains the method adopted to answer the study’s main research
question: Do millennial (people aged 19 – 25 in 2019) differ in their evaluation and use of
supermarkets from other age groups? As outlined in the chapter, the centrepiece of the research
design is an online survey of consumers asking about their evaluation of and behaviour in
supermarkets. The chapter explains the background to consumer behaviour and how this survey
was conducted to identify co-relation of age influences on grocery purchase over supermarkets.

4.1 Researching consumer behaviour

Various methods have been used to explore influences on consumer decision making. Studies
conducted by (Ghifarni, Sumarwan and Najib, 2018; Zalega & Warszawski, 2017) exploring
how consumer behaviour varies according to age have used a survey approach to gather
quantitative data. Both studies’ aims were to gather data from large samples, distributing their
questionnaires in a variety of ways to different population groups, including both offline
questionnaires, by distributing both personally and online. This approach was to make sure
elderly people also got the opportunity to participate in the research as many of them do not
use technological devices such as computers and mobile phones frequently. This is a very cost-
effective method of gathering data, but it could be time consuming and accuracy could vary.
This approach is best suited to gathering quantitative data. A study of the effects of advertising
on generation Z (Born between 1995-2015) used semi-structured interviews on the grounds of
identifying the effectiveness of advertisements on influencing consumer decisions
(Hutagalung, 2016). Further Hutagalung claimed it was an easy way of gathering data and had
the flexibility of changing the questions from respondent to another based on the feedback
received. This approach had been used as the target group is ideally in the same age category
and data gathered had to be qualitative to identify the distinguish preferences. In contrast, a
study of consumers choice of stores and co-relation to hierarchy used mixed methods as
observation followed by a questionnaire (Sato, Takano, & Nakahara, 2018). This more
structured approached was justified by the researchers as it was a study which was based on
explanatory research to identify the co-relation on consumer decisions and expenditure on each

64
shop (supermarkets, pharmacy etc…) it was useful for researchers to use these mixed methods
to analyse and identify the co-relation on shop preference and ranking as per the research
question. This method would provide a high accuracy on data but would be time consuming
and costly.

Going through all these studies we can derive that these are cross-sectional studies
which was done based on that particular time period. A study which is done over a period of
years called longitudinal took a different approach. Researchers Nguyen, et al (2016 conducted
a study essentially it was a study about electricity consumption, for three years in Japan . It was
an experimental study with participants selected by random sampling. Smart meters were
installed in households and data gathered over the three years. The drawback of this approach
was that the sample size was small. To mitigate this, researchers used random sampling so they
believed they could expect a higher accuracy. This method would be very time consuming and
costly however it might be appropriate in a sophisticated study for an organization or
government.

Although all of the above studies have investigated influences on consumer

behaviour depending on the main research question, the approaches were very different. The
methods have strengths as well as weaknesses. Understanding these, the researcher decided to
use a survey approach for the research on whether millennial (people aged 19 – 25 in 2019)
differ in their evaluation and use of supermarkets from other age groups? The data collection
method was a questionnaire which was distributed through a link published on Facebook pages
and e mails, and three semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted with
individuals in the millennial age group and two others. The selection criteria will be elaborated
on more throughout the next sections. The study was based on age and identifying the
distinguish differences in consumer behaviour. Researcher believed selecting the right criteria
on generations was crucial for the study. The following section will elaborate how millennials
are defined.

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Main research group millennials

Defining a generation requires us to consider how wide the age group needs to be to
constitute a generation, and which years demarcate the start and finish of any particular
generation. Generations are segmented based on first birth year and last birth year; there are
six age categorized segments identified by their birth year (Edu, Nedricea , Haydam , & Avram,
2019). To determine a specific age group or a generation in a particular year is challenging.
Past researchers Balam, et al (2019) have categorised the age group born between 1984 to 1996
as millennials for their study. Researchers Severo, Guimaraes, Dellarmelin and Ribeiro (2019)
considered millennials as the age group born after 1981. Similarly, Edu, Nedricea, Haydam
and Avram (2019) also considered the millennial segment as the age group in between 1984-
1999.Though all these studies were done in a particular year 2019 it was very challenging for
researchers to define specific periods for each generation. According to books published by the
authors (Armstrong, Adam, Denice, Volkov & Kotler, 2018; Solomon, Bennett & Previte,
2013) the generational group millennials are defined as the group born in between 1985-2002.
The NZ framework on generations on the official statistics website does not identify
generations by birth years, nevertheless, information is available based on birth year. Research
conducted in NZ by Erlam, Smythe and Wright (2016) considered millennials as the generation
born in between years 1982-2000. Further the NZ magazines and articles such as NZ Herald,
Stuff.co.nz also considered slightly different years defining millennials so it was challenging
for the researcher to define millennials for this research. Researcher believed the gap between
the birth years should be narrowed down to identify their behaviour closely. In this changing
world, a ten-year age difference may vary the thinking and behaviour of an individual.
Considering past research and other factors, the researcher derived millennials as the age group
born in between 1994-2000: those who are aged 19-25 by the year 2019. This age category
represents 25% of the NZ population (Sats NZ, 2020). Reviewing the past business reviews
done in NZ (Infocus,2018; foodtechnology,2018) the focus on millennials are age in between
25-29 years in up to 2018. Researcher believes there is a gap to research the millennial segment
in consumer behaviour age between 19-25. Researcher believed this age category would
distinguish purchasing behaviour. Selecting this age category as millennials would give the
opportunity to clearly differentiate the consumer behaviour in different age groups concluding
the main research question

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 4.2 Research design and strategy

This section will highlight the research design which is the way researcher has
collected the data in order to analyse and conclude the research question and sub questions
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2012,p. 726). The research strategy is how researcher will
follow the steps to get answers to the research questions (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012,
p. 726). In order to go through above process researcher used the research onion depicting
layers in the process of designing research design and strategy (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill,
2012, p. 124).

Figure 4. 2 The Research Onion

From Research methods for business students, by Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2012)

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Research philosophy

A research philosophy outlines the different views, beliefs and assumptions about
developing the knowledge in a particular field (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). It can be
classified into three main sections: Ontology based on nature of reality, which consist of two
faces as objectivism and subjectivism, Epistemology accepting the knowledge of a particular
area of study which has two approaches as researching resources and researching feelings and
finally Axiology which refers to values and ethics within the research process. There are five
main research philosophies: Positivism, Interpretivism, critical realism, postmodernism and
pragmatism (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). There are main two philosophies which are
mainly being used for similar researches which are Positivism and Interpretivism.

Positivism

This philosophy was designed in late 20th century and comes from the word ‘posited’
which is the meaning for given’ (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Positivism emphasises
the social world is external and best way to understand the facts are by observing (Smith,
Thorpe, & Jackson, 2015). Authors Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2012) revealed it is a
philosophy which has the approach of a natural scientist, where a theory will be constructed
through observation like a law. Researcher will take an objective stance in deriving a theory by
observing reality. It is a stance of observing human and social behaviour and attributing a
theoretical assumption (Smith, Thorpe, & Jackson, 2015). The Positivism approach seeks
knowledge based on systematic observation and experiment, with the goal of discovering social
laws parallel to the natural laws exposed by the methods of natural science (Roth & Mehta,
2002). Positivist analysis generally seeks to hypothesize and then appraise causal implications
about social spectacles that will be generalize beyond the specific data analysed (Lin, 1998).
The hypotheses built can be tested statistically thorough establishing a deductive approach and
building a theory (Weaver, 2005). In Positivism the researcher is neutral on the matter under
research and the stance is mainly objective (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Positivism
customarily involves quantitative methods, using investigational techniques involving conduct
and control groups (Barapatre, 2014). The Positivist researcher follows structured techniques
to gather data and to uncover solitary. Objective statistical and mathematical techniques are
vital in the research methods adopted by positivist researchers, and they adhere to specific
structured research techniques to uncover single and objective realisms (Cohen, Manion, &

68
Morrison, 2007). Traditionally the researcher follows a deductive approach in positivism and
gathers data from a large sample to analyses (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). It is a way
which the data will be collected statistically and analysed accordance to original theories
(Barapatre, 2014). Considering past studies which relates to consumer behaviour and
millennials (Smith K.T, 2011; Ghifarni, Sumarwan & Najib, 2018; Zalega & Warszawski,
2017,) there are a lot of similarities in the philosophical approach. All of the studies have a
hypothesised that ‘millennials’ thinking is different to other age generations’ and used large
sample sizes to gather information to test the results. Surveys are mainly used to gather
quantitative data. The approach is deductive where data collected is analysed to test and derive
a theory from, which is either compatible with or contrary to a previously existing theory.

The objective of the research is to answer the question, ‘Do millennials (people aged 19 – 25
in 2019) differ in their evaluation and use of supermarkets from other age groups?’

There is a long history of research about consumer behaviour, with a lot of agreement
on past theories which have been constructed in this field. This makes positivism a dominant
philosophy. Therefore, the researcher wanted to test the results on millennials on NZ grounds
and link the same to the universal studies by agreeing or disagreeing with existing theories.
Researcher wanted to establish what factors influence the millennials and whether there is a
distinguishing difference to other age groups. Researcher believed this study should be
conducted in a quantitative manner with a large number of participants. Further researcher
believed a similar test as a questionnaire with similar set of questions asked from various people
in community who’s diverse with demographic factors would give feedback differently to
identify their behaviour discretely. Researcher believed the best suitable approach was
positivism.

Comparison of other research philosophies

An alternative to the Positivist approach is Interpretivism. The philosophy is based

on differences in between human beings and identifying individuals in different demographic
environments (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Interpretivism as an approach to
organizational functioning which realizes that employees are not merely rational beings, whose
behaviour can be predicted and expectantly controlled or managed – they construct a reality

69
based on their understanding of a situation, which is born from their values, beliefs and unique
reactions to the conditions and contexts they find themselves in (Greeff, 2015). The aim of
interpretivist research is to understand and interpret human behaviour and subjective matters
as what motivates or influence decisions rather than to generalize and predict causes and effects
(Barapatre, 2014). This philosophy emphasises that human behaviour could vary depending on
social class or hierarchy (demographical factors) and generalisation of theory is not practical
rather than understanding each demographic factor separately (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill,
2012). In Interpretivism, the researcher is a part of the research and has a clear objective (Gilson
& Johnson, 2010).For interpretivism generally the approach is inductive which goes into details
to gather qualitative data by exploring details. (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).
Considering past studies conducted on consumer behaviour through and interpretivist approach
(Newman & Foxall, 2003; Leitch, Hill & Harrison, 2009; Hutagalung, 2016) each has
concentrated on revealving a specific norm in connection to consumer behaviour in a specific
industry or a perticular consumer segment. Studies have concentrated on a particular age
segment and how the effectiveness of advertisements affects their behaviour. Other studies are
concentrated on industries such as fashion and how the layout influances consumer behaviour.
Researchers believe to gather qualitative data by conducting semi-structured interviews or
focus group discussions. Further studies have also used obsevations in order to understand
concumer behaviour thoroughly. Researchers tried to gather a variety of data types and used
an inductive approach to find a solution to the research questions. Researcher believes all these
studies were done independently searching for a solution for a particular cause. Philosophy
interpretivism ideally suits to explore a solution. Therefor qualitative data needs to be gathered
from an interview or focus group discussions. Whereas researchers study requires more
quantitative data and the method should be a questionnaire on a large sample. Comparing these
philosophies, the researcher believed the most appropriate philosophy was positivism as the
study was to be conducted to arrive at a generalized theory in NZ to understand the consumer
behavoiour and millennials. Researcher believed the deduction approach should be followed
in which “data collection is used to evaluate propositions or hypotheses related to an existing
theory” (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012, p. 145). Researcher wanted to analyses the data
gathered by drawing on existing consumer decision making theory.

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Choice of Method

The main methods of collecting data are quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods
(Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Both quantitative and qualitative approaches taken by
individual investigators differ significantly, as both approaches are seen regularly, completely
independent and based on alternative opinions of the world (Barapatre, 2014).

Quantitative research

Quantitative research is defined as approach by collecting numerical data that will

be analysed using mathematically based methods or numerical analysis (Balnaves & Caputi,
2001). Quantitative research tends to find a relationship between variables which will be
proven numerically (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Generally, this approach follows
larger sample sizes and addresses questions such as “how many”, “how often”, “who”, “when”,
and “where” (Barapatre, 2014). This research method is based on gathering people opinion in
a structured way so that you can derive at conclusion statistically to prove (Balnaves & Caputi,
2001). Generally quantitative research is associated with the positivism philosophy and has a
deductive approach (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). The conclusion of quantitative
studies arrives at percentages or at time period (Mujis, 2004). Researcher wanted to deduce the
present theory about millennial consumers and co-relate the behaviour in NZ supermarket
industry. Researcher believed the quantitative approach to be the most appropriate. The best
approach for gathering quantitative data was through a questionnaire from a number of NZ
based consumers of different age categories. Did the researcher believe the sub-questions were
based on past studies. These questions were needed to explore a large number of participants
in NZ . Researcher believed the questions needed quantifiable responses where a proper
understanding of the percentage of millennials who are influenced within each category can be
identified. The differences in between each age category and what influences them can be
identified separately.

Researcher followed the approach of a questionnaire which covered the four research
questions aspects. The questionnaire was distributed through online portals using the social

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media groups and students. This approach gave researcher the opportunity to reach a good
number of participants and get their answers to the planned research questions.

Qualitative approach

Barapatre (2014) states that qualitative research is used to gain an in-depth

understanding of an organization or an event which is more focused on exploring issues. This
research generally gathers from a small sample and goes into detail. Saunders, Lewis and
Thornhill (2012) revealed that qualitative research generally follows interpretivist philosophy
which the researcher wanted to use to understand subjective matters and construct his own
theory. As stated, before the methods used are focus group discussions, interviews and
observation.

4.3 Method
(Survey approach and questionnaire)

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2012) surveys are typical of deductive research and
are associated with research seeks to establish answers to questions like ‘what’, ‘who’, ‘where’
and ‘how many’

The most famous method in survey approach is gathering data through a

questionnaire as it enables to gather data from a sizable population which is quantitative. Based
on the methodology design it is important to gather data from a systematic way according to
most suitable method.

Researcher believed the best approach of gathering data was through a questionnaire
as the study has the deductive approach and need quantitative data. Comparing the past studies
on consumer behaviour (Isiklar, Zerenler, Cagliyan & Hassan, 2017; Ghifarni, Sumarwan &
Najib, 2018; Zalega & Warszawski, (2017) had all followed the same strategy, survey approach
and data collected through questionnaires. The reason being that all studies had a similar
approach using a positivistic philosophy which needs to find a resolution based on past theory.

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This study was based on same approach which researcher determined as the best suitable
option.

This study used an online questionnaire created in google forms application.

Questionnaire was designed based on the main research questions and sub questions which
were elaborated on in chapter one. It consisted of thirty questions with multiple choice answers
and Likert styled questions. The questionnaire was based on five parts.

First part, questions one to eight, focused on demographic factors and general
questions on supermarket grocery purchases which related to the second research question,
‘What criteria influence the selection of a supermarket among millennials, and do these criteria
differ from those of other age groups?

The second part, questions nine to fifteen, focused on special price deals and
promotions which covered the first research question, ‘Are millennials more or less influenced,
either positively or negatively by supermarket promotions than other age groups?’

The third section, questions sixteen to twenty two, covered technology and online
purchasing which relate to the fourth research question ‘Do millennials engage in online
shopping more than other age groups?

Forth section, questions twenty-three to twenty-seven, consisted of questions with

regard to supermarket social and environmental consideration which covers the third research
question ‘Are millennials more or less influenced, either positively or negatively by the social
and environmental responsibility of supermarkets than are other age groups?’

Fifth section consist of questions twenty-seven to thirty on different influential

criteria from which covers a part of second research question. A sample of the questionnaire is
attached in Appendix A.

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 The reason to use of multiple-choice questions was to identify what criteria are most
important for the respondents when it comes to their choice and influence on selecting a
supermarket. Likert questions with options of first ‘strongly agree’ and last ‘strongly disagree’
were used in order to get respondents’ agreement level on those different factors.

Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Jackson (2015) states that this method is easy and very
cost effective. Using google forms was an easy way to design the questionnaire and distribute
using e-mail addresses and social media network links which could also be created through
google forms itself. The application was very efficient as it could reach a high number of
participants within a short period of time. The responses got captured in real time and the
researcher could see the progress daily. As mentioned by Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Jackson
(2015) generally questionnaires’ response rate is poor: the accepted response rate of a
questionnaire is 20%. Further it was not feasible to contact the respondents individually. It was
challenging to the researcher to gather data on time. It was not feasible to accelerate the speed
of responses. There is another shortfall in a questionnaire’s accuracy, respondents may not give
accurate feedback and researcher had to rely on the findings captured. As explained in the
previous paragraph the reason for conducting interviews was to minimize the gaps which may
have occurred capturing the results of the questionnaire. Three interviews were conducted in
three different age groups being millennials, 35-45 group and 45 and above. The reason for this
is to support the questionnaire by linking the findings from interviews into the questionnaire
results. Further it helps researcher to go in depth of some areas which questionnaire was unable
to. There were nine main questions which were designed for the semi-structured interviews
following the same format used for the questionnaire. The questions were covering the aspects
of four research sub questions.

Researcher used the interviews as follow through to triangulate the questionnaire.

Further it gives opportunity for researcher to get additional data on particular questions
regarding effectiveness of strategies implemented by supermarkets, to understand what really
influences the consumers by going through a discussion. Researcher wanted to cross check the
questions in questionnaire were properly responded. However, the outbreak of Covid 19
pandemic resulted this approach impractical. It helped researcher to connect findings with the
survey results and understand in detail the different generational requirements.

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Interview questions are attached in Appendix B

Sampling

Sampling has been first sighted in early European book The Histories (ca.440 B.C)
as a Persian king had used to calculate his size of army (Stephen, 2012). According to Saunders,
Lewis and Thornhill (2012) sampling is very important as it represents the entire population.
Further it saves money and time spend on gathering data from entire population. Further
sampling helps to gather more accurate in detail information with a shorter period and give
more time to design a quality data gathering method. Further it gives opportunity for researcher
to spend more time analysing data so the results will be more accurate and useful. There are
two main sampling approaches into research as probability and Nonprobability sampling.

Sampling frame for the study

This study was based on a questionnaire about supermarkets. The researcher wanted
to identify the distinguish differences in between millennials and non-millennials under certain
criteria. The sample needed to be based on all supermarket users in NZ. Specifically, there had
to be participation from all age groups and more emphasis should be given to millennials.

There is always room for margin of error whilst sampling and it is important to arrive
at a good sample size to minimize the impact (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). The total
population of NZ as at 2018 was 4.9 million (Stats NZ, 2020). The legally registered
relationship status is 48.6% as at 2018 (Stats NZ, 2020). Researcher used the census data and
categorized different age groups in NZ too.

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Table 4. 1 – New Zealand Population.
From age and sex by ethnic group, by Census Stats NZ (2018),
http://nzdotstat.stats.govt.nz/wbos/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TABLECODE8317
Age group Under 15 15-18 19-24 25-29 30-64 65 above

Population 927,096 245,922 389,583 354,765 2,138,628 737,370

Percentage 19% 5% 9% 7% 44% 16%

Key highlights from the table.

 Under 15 age categories were excluded from being considering as a grocery shopper.

 The total of the balance population is 3.86 million.

 Legally registered relationship status was considered to calculate an estimate of grocery

shoppers. 48.6% of 3.86 million is 1.95 million.

 As a whole group, the grocery shoppers are considered as 2.2 million

Considering the margin of error to be less than 5% and the total population, and to
keep the confidence level more than 95% the sample size should be between 384-9513
(Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012, p. 281)

Main area of focus on this study was on millennial which is the age bracket of 19-
24 making up 9% of the total population. As the emphasis should be given on data which is
gathered by the millennial generation researchers target was in 30-40% data collection from
millennials and the rest from different age groups to compare against, as the researcher believed
different age brackets would have different feedback. The approach was to use an online survey
to reach many people through social media platforms and e mail addresses. Gathering this
number of questionnaires would take a longer period. This was challenging for the researcher
and looked for an alternative sample size with a feasible number. Researcher reviewed the
statistics from census data on Southland region particularly

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Table 4. 2 – Population of Southland
From age and sex by ethnic group by region, by Census Stats NZ (2018),
http://nzdotstat.stats.govt.nz/wbos/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TABLECODE8317

Age group Under 15 15-18 19-24 25-29 30-64 65 above

Population 19,611 4815 6699 6669 46,224 17,553

Percentage 19% 5% 7% 7% 45% 17%

Reviewing the numbers in Southland researcher identified the numbers differ

slightly compared to overall NZ statistics. Researcher identified the number of millennials is
7% which should need a specific focus to gain feedback from. Researcher believed the
supermarket industry is spread right across the country equally and number of brands and range
is almost identical. Though there could be a slight difference in between regions the study will
be feasible by focusing on Southland region. An average sample size was calculated to be in
between 150-200 and predominantly gather data from Southland region. Data collection would
be easy and timely. The sampling techniques used was a mix of probability and non-probability
sampling which consists of random and non-random approaches.

Probability sampling

Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill (2012) This is a sample technique which relates more
to survey research approach where the researcher wanted to make implications from a group
representing the whole population. Stephen (2012)To decide on the population size a design
should be implemented and a procedure should be adhered to set the minimum number of units.
This procedure is called the probability sample model. Depending on the population size and
characteristics the approach and design of sample should be separate. (Saunders, Lewis, &
Thornhill, 2012) One of the main characteristics in probability sampling is to follow a sampling
frame. When the sample size is big the percentage of error is less. There is an impact and a
connection between the sample size, time and accuracy of information. There is a mathematical
calculation to derive the sample size and accuracy. Out of five main sampling techniques
researcher used Stratified random sampling. to determine the sample size

77
Stratified random sampling

A population is divided into two or more clusters and data gathered from a random
technique (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). In order to obtain data researcher reached out
to the following social group sights on Facebook:

Invercargill Club

Invercargill Invers

Invercargill Librarians

Invercargill NZ Sri Lankans

Respondents could directly go to the link and participate in the questionnaire. This would be a
method of getting the participation from different age groups and gathering data.

Non-probability sample

Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill (2012)state non as probability sampling is where the
sample will be selected randomly regardless of what sampling technique the researcher uses,
there are instances where this will not be practical for the research. Nonprobability sampling
can be used mainly for researchers who need to gather qualitative data and methods used as
interviews or focus group discussions. Flowerdew & Martin (2005) states when selecting
participants for a case study research and need a similar number of male and female participants
with more specifically geographically wise there has to be separate selection criteria on
selecting a set of particular samples. This method of non-probability sampling can be used in
such an instance. Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill (2012) explained that there are four techniques
in non-probability sampling and researcher used purposive and hapzard convenience sampling.

78
Purposive sampling.

This is a sample technique which participants were selected over the purpose of the
study (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Researcher visited a particular supermarket in the
city and reached out to a number of supermarket shoppers introducing himself and purpose of
the study. A link to the questionnaire was provided for them to participate in the questionnaire
if they wished. This would also achieve a participation of different age groups.

Convenience sampling

This is a selection of a sample which can be easily accessed (Saunders, Lewis, &
Thornhill, 2012). The link to the questionnaire was shared with personal contacts using
Facebook as well as WhatsApp. Further, SIT student participation was obtained through
Student support services. Michele Broad and Nick Elder from this service assisted setting up
this questionnaire to popup on the student portal each time a student logged in and prompted
them to participate. This sampling method gave the opportunity to focus on millennial age
group as most of the students would be in that age bracket.

Further the participants for the three interviews were recruited through personal contacts and
would fall under the same sampling approach.

The sampling approach was a mix of stratified, purposive and convenience random
sampling and non-random. The above approach would help to get feedback from a mix of
different age categories. Researcher assumed SIT students will be mainly on age brackets 19-
24 which will get a good sample on the focus group millennial. The other social media groups
could be from other age brackets which is required to benchmark the results against.

79
 4.4 Data collection and analysis

The responses were recorded real time on the google form application which could
provide a report daily and view the response rate. When the sufficient number of responses
were recorded the file was downloaded and saved as a password protected excel document.
This file was later used to analyse the data according to the research questions. A copy of the
file is attached in the blackboard.

Interviews

Three interviews were conducted with three individuals recruited through

researcher’s personal contacts. Out of these two interviews were based on an online platform
called zoom which is used for conference calls. Zoom has the access to interview live using
the computer camera and microphone. Further the interviews were recorded for further analysis
of data. A set of semi structured questions was used as the basis of the interviews conducted.
All questions were designed based on the research questions and parallel to the questionnaire.
A sample of the Interview questions are attached in the appendix. The other interview was held
in person. Interview data were analysed using content analysis method.

4.5 Ethical consideration

Ethics is a broader aspect of research, which great emphasis should be given during,
collecting, analysing and managing data (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012).

In this research there had been concern about risks during the process and actions were taken
to mitigate the same. Below, the table elaborates the concern and actions taken.

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Table 4. 3 – Ethical Consideration

Respect for participants Questionnaire was designed with basic questions on shopping
behaviour and no personal questions were asked. There were no
questions based on nationality, race or language they use. The
purpose of the study was well mentioned in the top of the
questionnaire and contact details of researcher were listed to
clarify any concern. Same protocol was followed recruiting
participants for the interviews with clear explanation of the
purpose and their actions required.
Privacy of participants There was no requirement to provide the personal details of the
participants of the questionnaire. Even if participants had given
the details nothing was recorded or used for the research.
Similarly interview participants personal details were not asked or
recorded whilst collecting or analysing data. Participants
anonymity was secured right throughout the research. The data
gathered was saved in researchers computer password protected
which will be destroyed in five years.
Voluntary nature and Participation in the questionnaire was not mandatory and
right to withdraw. participants had the right to withdraw at any given time. Though
Interviewers were selected through personal contacts a
preliminary discussion was held to obtain their approval for the
participation. Interviewers could withdraw at any given time
before signing and sending the consent form. Consent form was
requested one day prior the interviews.
Informed consent Questionnaire had the information section on top and participants
were giving their consent by completing the questionnaire. There
was a separate information sheet for the interviewers and with the
agreement the consent form was sent to sign and return. All
participants were well aware of their obligations and conditions
and clear about what gathered information would be used and
where it will be stored.

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 Confidentiality of data In the questionnaire there was one question requesting the
preferred supermarket brand name. These brand names were used
to analyse the questionnaire data, as participants names were not
associated. Similar question was asked during the interviews but
those supermarket brand names were coded as A,B,C and
confidentiality of the information was secured. None of the
participants names or contacted were quoted or discussed in or
outside of the research.
Responsibility in Questionnaire findings were saved prior analysed as it is as well
analysis and reporting the interviews were video recorded. All information used was
findings 100% accurate and soft copies were uploaded for further review.

All above criteria were met during the research process and prior the collection and
analysis of date researcher submitted the below documents for the ethics committee approval
which was held on 5/11/2019.

 Ethics application – With the complete information on research and aim of the study.
Benefits of the study and how data will be collected. Further how participants will
understand the purpose of the study and how they will give their consent to participate
was clearly mentioned. (Appendix C)

 Draft questionnaire – a section of information was included in the header whilst

completing the questionnaire the respondent agreeing on their consent.

 Information sheet for the participants for the focus group discussion (Appendix D)

 A draft list of questions for the focus group discussion

After the Meeting help on November 5th, 2019 an initial approval was given by Sally Bodkin
the chair of ethics committee with a few recommendations to the questionnaire.

Final approval was received after submitting the complete questionnaire on 19/02/2020.

The ethics approval letter and consent forms are attached in the appendices.

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 4.6 Limitations

Researcher encountered several limitations during the study and tried to mitigate the
impact to a minimum level by taking several measures. The ideal study should be focused on
all of NZ and how different age groups are diverse in consumer behaviour. But time and
resources were limited to achieve this task, Taking the survey to distribute right throughout the
country would have been time consuming and would require a lot of resources such as data
bases and assistance from an IT base company. In a similar way, the participation for the focus
group or interviews should be on voluntary basis by advertising through the questionnaire or
any other mode. Yet again it would have been time consuming and might have needed
remuneration if any cost was involved for the participants recruited. Due to time and monetary
constraints the above criteria could not be met. Therefore, the research was based on collecting
data from the identified groups based in the Southland district mentioned in previous paragraph
and through personal contacts. There could be argument that participants are biased, and
response accuracy may vary. To overcome this challenge researcher made sure to educate the
participants by explaining the purpose of the research and importance of the information.
Researcher believes this action would have minimized of any negative impact toward
participants data. Another approach by the researcher was to request respondents of the
questionnaire to send the questionnaire to their contacts as a snowball effect, allowing the
questionnaire to reach many third-party individuals who gave their individual opinion.
Furthermore, researcher visited a particular supermarket and approached customers randomly
and explained the purpose and got the feedback. These actions helped to minimize the impact
on accuracy of information.

The research was conducted during the period of Global Pandemic of Covid-19
during which the entire country went through a lockdown. Researcher’s response rate on
questionnaire was limited due to this issue. Further researcher couldn’t conduct the focus group
discussions which were initially planned due to restrictions imposed by the Government.
Regardless of this issue the response rate for the questionnaire was good prior the lockdown
and researcher had sufficient data to analyse the results. Further the usage of technology (zoom
application as explained in the previous paragraph) helped to conduct interviews online which
minimized the impact of personal gathering restrictions. Supermarkets were operating right
throughout the pandemic being under essential category and rules and regulations imposed by

83
individual supermarkets may have influenced the choice of supermarket brand. To capture this
or to separate the findings researcher made sure to discuss the pandemic issue and how this
was related to the supermarket industry during the interviews. This helped to identify if there
were any concerns over the last few questionnaire feedback received.

Reliability and validity of data

To overcome the limitations there are several measures had been taken by the
Researcher. Researcher was concern about the reliability and validity of the data and these
measures will be discussed in new paragraphs.

Reliability of data.

It is important to understand how best the data collection methods or techniques

helped the researcher to find a proper solution for the research question (Saunders, Lewis, &
Thornhill, 2012). As explained in previous paragraph researcher made sure the purpose of the
study was well explained to the participants. Information on the research was provided in the
top of the questionnaire. Further as explained, the concern of anonymity had been conveyed to
participants which making them more comfortable in revealing honest feedback. Although the
researcher is presently attached to the supermarket industry for work, no influence was made
to any of the respondents. Researcher used this opportunity to get the consent from the
supermarket owner and approach to customers and get their participation on the survey. This
was to distribute the survey amongst more random people. If there is any impact by lockdown
(Covid 19) and any change to influence level towards supermarkets an effort had being put
during the data analysis. Will be discussed in detail in chapter five. Researcher believed this
gave the opportunity to see a new dimension on consumer behaviour with this pandemic whilst
focusing on the main research question.

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Validity of the data

This is to what extent to which the data were accurate to measure what the researcher
intended (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). Researcher made sure the questionnaire was
designed in a much-generalised way by which the respondents could identify the questions
easily. Questions were designed systematically to gather data with regard to matching the
research questions but with a simple way to be easily understood by any age group participant.
Researcher went through several past case studies and questionnaire designs in order to follow
a similar flow in the questions. A pilot study was conducted amongst two industry experts and
two random people to get the feedback on how well the questionnaire is designed and to
crosscheck their interpretation of questions. Based on feedback received amendments were
done prior to finalizing the questionnaire. Similarly, semi-structured interview questions were
designed in a way in which participants would easily understand and open a discussion.

Most importantly the data collecting method for telephone interviews was designed
for the purpose of gathering more valid data. Researcher had the opportunity of having in-depth
discussions with the participants and understanding their feedback more meaningfully for the
questions. All these data collection methods helped researcher to conduct a valid data analysis.

Researcher believed this research met a higher percentage on data reliability and validity which
resulted in getting a more accurate solution to the main research question.

Chapter summary

Chapter Four defined and discussed the methodological approach taken for this
research, by providing the research approach best suited to answering the research questions.
After reviewing various past studies and theory, Researcher identified that the best framework
for this research approach would be positivism. which quantitative data would be deduced to
compare and contrast against past theories. In order to explore how consumer behavior is
changed in the context supermarket grocery shopping. The method used to collect data was a
questionnaire which got responses from 154 participants from different age groups. This helped

85
researcher to compare the findings based on age categories and different influences. Three
interviews were conducted to distinguish if there is any contrary evidence to the findings
revealed.

This research project involved human aspects and ethical aspect was considered and necessary
approval were obtained by the ethics committee of Southern Institute of Technology
Invercargill. Approval was granted prior to collecting data.

Chapter five will present the research findings and analysis according to the research questions.

86
Chapter 5 Findings and Analysis

Chapter overview

Collected data through the questionnaires and Interviews were used based on the
following structured approach. The researcher had used two analytical tools as SEI and
Supermarket loyalist category which was instrumental to get best results. Application of these
models will be elaborated in next sections.

1. Questionnaire 30 2. Conduct Semi-Structured

questions 5 topics Interviews

3. Determine level of 7. Analyse Supermarket 8. Triangulage analysis

engagement by demographic Loyalist responses for results with interview
group differences between all age transcripts to compare and
groups seek explanation of results

6. Analyse responses using

4. Check for patterns and get SEI tool (Supermarket
overall big picture Engagement Index) on 19 9. Analyse Findings
Likert Scale style questions
from questionnaire

5. Run a check on responses

gathered 'pre-COVID 19'
lockdown and 'post-COVID
19' lockdown for variance

Figure 5. 1 Data collection and analysis framework

The findings of the questionnaires and interviews are analysed using descriptive
statistical methods to answer the study’s research questions. The full set of findings has been
securely uploaded as an appendix to this work. This chapter is presented in three sections.

87
Findings of the questionnaire
This section will elaborate the findings of the questionnaire which consisted of thirty
questions. Findings are grouped in themes for easy reference.

Findings of the semi-structured interviews

This section will present the findings of the three interviews. Key findings and key highlights
are listed in two separate tables.

Data analysis
In this section findings will be further discussed using graphs and charts.

5.1 Findings of the questionnaire

The questionnaire captured various demographic features of participants and covered five
topics related to supermarket shopping:

Topic 1 – Shopping patterns

Topic 2 – In store shopping behaviour

Topic 3 – Online shopping behaviour

Topic 4 – Corporate citizenship and supermarkets

Topic 5 – Supermarket service and offerings

Demographic profile

According to the data collected, the majority of the respondents represent females
(60%) and aged under 35 which is 65% of the total respondents, (Table 5.1). Out of the total
respondents’ Millennials (age 19-25) comprise 24%. The survey sample had been compared
against the Southland region demographic profile (Table 5.2). Southland region was used to
gather data as explained in Chapter 4. The significant difference in comparison is on age
category above 45. That is mainly due to Southland population consist of high above 45 age
group. Apart from that the sample is in line with the population.

88
Table 5. 1 Age category by gender

Under 19 19-25 26-35 36-45 45 above Total

No. Male 5 13 20 19 4 61

Percentage 3% 8% 13% 12% 3% 40%

No. Female 7 25 31 18 11 92

Percentage 5% 16% 20% 12% 7% 60%

Total
8% 24% 33% 24% 15% 100%
Percentage
N = 153

Table 5. 2 Demographic profile of Southland Region

Under 19 19-25 26-35 36-45 45 above TOTAL

Male 3,057 3,024 6,510 6,093 21,936 40,620
Percentage 4% 4% 8% 7% 27% 50%
Female 2,763 2,673 6,694 6,213 23,013 41,356

Percentage 3% 3% 8% 8% 28% 50%

Total Percentage 7% 7% 16% 15% 55% 100%

From age and sex by ethics group, by Stats NZ,

(http://nzdotstat.stats.govt.nz/wbos/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TABLECODE8317#) ‘’ N = 81,976

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Topic 1: Shopping patterns
This section of the survey examines the frequency of supermarket shopping and the
difference in shopping patterns between Millennials and other age groups.

Supermarket visit frequency

60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
daily multiple days a once a week every other week monthly
week

19-25 Other age groups

Figure 5. 2 Supermarket visits frequency

N = 154

There is no significant difference in shopping frequency between Millennials and

other age groups (Figure 5.2), except that 10% of Millennials visit the supermarket daily.
There is no difference in the preferred supermarket between Millennials and others,

Millennials Other age groups

Countdown
21% Countdown
21%

PAK’nSAVE PakNsave
New World New World
58% 57%
21% 22%

Figure 5. 3 Millennial Vs the other age group preferred supermarket

N = 154

For influences on supermarket choice, Millennials are influenced most by price and
convenience compared to other age groups.

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 Topic 2: In-store shopping behaviour

This theme of the survey examines what influences the inside-supermarket shopping
behaviour of the different demographic groups. Findings revealed various factors influence the
consumer’s in-store shopping behaviour. Table 5.3 shows that female Millennials have a high
tendency to be influenced by the price, at 29% of the total participants, however there is no
clear pattern of identifying significant difference between Millennials and other age groups
based on influence of price.

Table 5. 3 Influence on price

Millennial Other age groups
Male Female Both age groups Male Female Both age groups
Strongly agree 11% 29% 40% 16% 23% 39%
Agree 16% 1% 27% 12% 10% 22%
Neutral 8% 13% 21% 5% 15% 20%
Disagree 0% 11% 11% 5% 8% 13%
Strongly Disagree 0% 3% 3% 3% 3% 6%
Total

Note. N = 154

In terms of communication methods, Millennials prefer social media and TV/Radio for
information from a supermarket on specials. 47% of Millennials indicated social media and
20% recorded TV & radio. However, Millennials are less likely to get the information whilst
shopping in store than the other age groups.

Comparison of communication modes

47%
50% 31%
40% 22% 22%
30% 14%16% 14%
20% 4% 0% 0% 3% 7% 0% 2%
10%
0%

19-25 other age groups

Figure 5. 4 Comparison of communication methods on specials

N = 154

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 Millennials are influenced slightly more than the other age groups to shop when there
is a special in a supermarket, (Figure 5.5). Also noted was that females are generally more
influenced than males by specials, specifically Millennial females.

46%
40%

–
24% 23%
21%
14% 13%
9%
5%
3%

STRONGLY AGREE AGREE NEUTRAL DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE

19-25 other age groups

Figure 5. 5 Specials influence on shopping behaviour

N = 154

A co-relation between specials and size of the shopping cart revealed the tendency for
Millennials to be more likely to purchase groceries due to specials than the other age groups,
particularly female Millennials at 38% strongly in agreement. However, Millennials were also
shown to strongly believe that too much information on specials could impact grocery shopping
decisions negatively.

The proportion of shoppers having one, two or three loyalty cards is similar between
Millennial and other age groups. There is no significance difference or influence in shopping
behaviour by carrying a loyalty card.

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Topic 3: Online shopping behaviour

The survey results identify the acceptability of online grocery shopping and how it
differs based on age groups. Figure 5.6 shows that 70% of respondents stated they had not used
online shopping, a result that is similar across all age groups. However, there are differences
in the reasons for not shopping online. Figure 5.7 shows most Millennials (37%) prefer to shop
in person and the other age groups perceive it as unreliable, (37%). The second reason for all
age groups is the concern over security.

Figure 5. 6 Online ordering age wise

Reasons
40% 37% 37%
33%
35% 31%
30%
25% 22% 22%
20%
15% 10%
10% 7%
5%
0%
Need to shop in Not reliable Security concerns Lack of knoledge
person using internet

19-25 Other age groups

Figure 5. 7 Reasons of not using online grocery shopping

N = 105

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 Comparing the 30% of the age groups (Figure 5.5) who had done online shopping, other
data showed that Millennials are more likely to fully change their shopping behaviour to online
over conventional more than the other age groups. 28% of Millennials are in strong agreement
with this. Millennials are more satisfied with online delivery than other age groups and are
willing to pay extra for a better online service too.

Findings reveal that Millennials see online shopping as more cost and time effective
than other age groups. In the category of willingness to change the supermarket brand over
online ordering facility, there is a slight difference in agreement between Millennials and the
rest, with 32% of Millennials willing against other age groups at 26%.

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Topic 4: Corporate citizenship and supermarkets

This section examines attitudes towards the various activities supermarkets are
involved in which benefit society and the environment. Millennials are more concerned about
having a proper waste management system than other age groups, with females being more
concerned than males.

There is no significance difference between Millennials and other age groups on staff
wellbeing as both age groups strongly believe in this aspect. However, Millennials believe
more than the other age groups that supermarkets should get involved in community support
activities such as charities.

All age groups strongly believe there should be transparent pricing policy adhered to
by the supermarkets with Millennials slightly more influenced by this than other age groups.
Similar results were revealed about food safety practices of supermarkets too, with Millennials
more influenced again than other age groups.

Topic 5: Supermarket service and offerings

This section covers product range offered by supermarkets and how consumers are influenced
based on demography. The range of New Zealand-own products influences Millennials more
than the other age groups. Similar results were found for the availability of organic and gluten
free products. Millennials have a distinguished difference in that they are more influenced by
availability of these ranges of products. Findings reveal that Millennial women are very much
more influenced than any other age group with 29% being influenced by gluten free range,
(Table 5.4).

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Table 5. 4 Comparison on gender on influence on gluten free product range

Millennial Other age groups

M F Both M F Both
Strongly
5% 29% 34% 9% 12% 20%
agree
Agree 0% 8% 8% 5% 9% 14%
Neutral 13% 24% 37% 15% 15% 30%
Disagree 8% 3% 11% 5% 12% 17%
Strongly
8% 0% 8% 7% 12% 19%
disagree

Note. N = 151

5.2 Findings of Semi-structured Interviews

Key findings of three interviews were categorized using content analysis, (Error!
Reference source not found.). The summary of the findings (Error! Reference source not
found.) used the same themes as the questionnaire. The interview videos and transcriptions are
available separate to this report. As the purpose of the interviews was to get more insight into
the questions, the comments made will be discussed in detail in the data analysis section.

Table 5. 5 Findings of the interviews

Question Themes Key findings
Demographic factors Millennial / Male 35-45 / Male 45 above / Female
How often do you purchase groceries from a
supermarket? once in two weeks every week every week
Do you patronize one supermarket brand more than Topic 2: Shopping
any other? Patterns Yes Yes Yes
Which supermarket brand? Supermarket C Supermarket A Supermarket B

Why do you patronize this particular supermarket Convenience Price, Service Convenience

Does price a main influencer No Yes No

How do you get to know about supermarket In Store, Social media,
promotions Topic 3: In store TV E mail, in store Circular
shopping behavior
Does promotions influence you to purchase? Yes No Yes

Do you carry a loyalty card? Yes Yes Yes

Does this influence to shop in? Yes Yes Yes

Have you ever purchased groceries online? Yes No No

Will this facility influence you to select a Topic 4: Online
supermarket? shopping behavior Yes No No
Would you change supermarket brand over a better
online offer? Yes No No
Topic 5:
Does having separate gluten free/Vegan product area Supermarket service
influence your choice of supermarket? and offerings No No No
Supermarkets social and environmental responsibility
does influence my choice of supermarket? No No No
Topic 6: Corporate
Do you believe supermarkets did justice during the
citizenship and
pandemic? Yes No Yes
supermarkets
Does the actions during the pandemic change your
choice of supermarket? No No No

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Table 5. 6 Key highlights during the interviews
Topic Participant Key highlights
Millennial Having a cafeteria influence him to visit the same supermarket
Shopping patterns
36-45 Visits another supermarket if some goods are not available
Millennial Carries the loyalty card for special prices and fuel discounts
Instore shopping behavior 36-45 Carries the loyalty card to get fuel discounts
45 above Use loyalty card to get points and redeem at the liquor store and pharmacy
Millennial More engaged in online shopping than buying in person
Online shopping behavior 36-45 Have a concern over freshness of perishable good
45 above No idea of using anytime soon

As the interviews discussed the questions in detail some topics had disparities in
between survey findings and interviews. Those topics will be discussed quoting the comments
from participants throughout the analysis and discussion.

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 5.3 Data Analysis

Under this section the key findings discovered through the questionnaire and interviews
will be analysed further to understand the differences identified between Millennials and other
age groups’ consumer behaviour. Further demographic factors which influence decision
making will also be discussed. The method will be application of the Supermarket Engagement
Index (SEI) followed by descriptive analysis with results shown using figures and tables.

Supermarket Engagement Index

Figure 5. 8 supermarket Engagement Index example (SEI)

Figure shows the Supermarket Engagement Index, (SEI). The questionnaire contained 19
questions with Likert scale response options. Participants could choose their agreement level
for each question by selecting a number from 1-5: 1 being strongly agree and 5 being
strongly disagree. These 19 questions were specifically trying to measure the participant

98
engagement with the supermarket. The SEI tool measured that the agreement and converted
the result into a number on a similar 1-5 scale: strongly agree – 1 and strongly disagree – 5

All the answers were transcribed into an excel sheet, then the conversion of words to
number was done using above scale. The final spread sheet looks like above figure (Figure 5.8)
of the SEI.

All questions were differentiated according to the topics which were discussed in the
findings section. For example, to compare the agreement level of question “I compare prices
of goods” for Millennials with the rest of the age groups, the total score for Millennials was
divided by the number of Millennial participants. Similarly, the rest of the age groups’ total
score was divided by the respective number of participants. The number arrived at is the index
score for that particular age group.

Measurement of the index score

This index score helps to identify the key engagement level of that specific age group. As the
strong agreement is number 1 and strong disagreement is number 5, when the total index score
is low it indicates that respondents strongly agree with that question, indicating engagement
with the supermarket offering is high. On the other hand, when the index score is high,
participants have a low engagement with the supermarket offerings. This index score is to
identify the key difference in age groups and under each section. This index score helps to
identify the key changes in the topics and gives a platform for further analysis and opportunity
to go into the detail of that topic.

The SEI allows the researcher to review all participants’ feedback and identify key
differences amongst demographic variables. The SEI was divided into sections under the
topics used in the findings section, in order to focus more on research questions.

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Supermarket Loyalist
To determine Supermarket Loyalists, the responses to the19 Likert scale questions from
the original questionnaire were further analysed. From the 154 survey respondents, 2,629
individual responses were received. These responses vary from strongly agree to strongly
disagree. There are 932 strongly agree responses. These responses are considered as
supermarket loyalist who are strong engage with supermarket offering. The differences
identified by the SEI were analysed by the Supermarket Loyalist category within the tool. The
researcher believed this to be the best analytical method to review the findings.

The Data analysis on capturing the impact of COVID-19 breakout.

During the process of data collection, the outbreak of COVID-19 took place and NZ
was in lockdown Level 4 from 23/03/2020. Supermarkets were classified as essential services
and operated throughout certain safety protocols in place. As the survey was being undertaken
at the during the same period, the regulations imposed could have led consumers to engage
with the supermarket differently. This would potentially have influenced the survey findings.
In order to determine if there was any impact, the first 25 responses which were received
between 18/02/2020 and 19/02/2020, prior to the lockdown were compared against the last 25
responses which were received between 02/03/2020 and 30/03/2020. This second period was
during the lockdown during which people had to stay inside their houses and could visit only
supermarkets. The SEI was used to measure the engagement level of participants, and any
difference in first 25 responses and last 25 responses was noted.

Table 5. 7 Supermarket engagement index COVID – 19 impact comparison

First 25 Last 25 Overall Index

Index 34.0 38.6 40.9
Male Index 39.7 39.8 41.7
Female Index 27.8 37.5 40.5

The SEI identified a difference between the index score of the first 25 responses (34.0)
and the last 25 responses’ index score of 38.6. This indicates a different engagement

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measurement with the supermarkets. The expanded analysis revealed that the female index
score for the first 25 is 27.8 which is very low compared to the overall index score of 40.5.
According to the measurement female’s engagement was very high in first 25 responses and it
had reduced significantly in the last 25 responses. The female responses were further analysed
dividing them into different age groups. This identified that from the responses of the
Millennials age group, four out of five Millennials had not responded for 5 questions out of the
19 Likert scale questions. Due to this, the total value captured on female Millennials for first
25 responses is 104 which makes the index score low. Apart from that one anomaly, the rest of
the data is in line and there is no proper identification on an impact of responses change due to
the COVID-19 breakout through the index.

The impact and influence on shopping behaviour was measured by gathering data
during the interviews held (Table 5.5) under the theme of Corporate Citizenship and
Supermarkets. The responses from a Millennial was “I'm very thankful to all of them. Hats off.
But, yeah, I have seen, especially on social media, a few people commenting that certain
supermarkets have been hiking the prices. I'm not in favour of it. It's not the right way”. The
Millennial pointed out his brand did the right thing and was in favour of their actions. Yet he
commented “If I feel that that's the way the supermarket is going about the place that I shop, I
would surely look at change in” meaning that if he felt supermarkets had not done the right
thing it would have influenced him to change the supermarket brand.

A participant from age category 36-45 commented “No, not at all. I don't think that it's
a good time to take a decision for their model because it's a pandemic. So, I have to trust my
brand. So therefore, I should go along” which was in strong agreement that this pandemic is
not influential for him to change the supermarket brand.

An above 45 age-participant commented “Main focus was on serving everybody rather

than running short. I believe supermarkets did handle it well”, which agreed with the prior
participant and confirms that this scenario did not influence a choice in change of supermarket.

The participants have not commented that their level of engagement with the
supermarket has not changed. The survey does not reflect any significant changes either. The
impact of the data analysis by the COVID-19 outbreak will therefore be minimal.

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Supermarket Engagement Index and demographic variables

The SEI was used to identify the differences with regard to Millennials and others in the
engagement level with the supermarket activities.

Table 5. 8 Average index score and supermarket loyalist of different age groups
Age group Index score average
under 19 2.4
Millennial 1.9
26-35 2.2
36-45 2.1
45 above 2.5

Overall feedback Loyalist Loyalist percentage

Under 19 198 49 25%
Millennial 661 299 45%
26-35 863 304 35%
36-45 637 226 35%
45 above 265 85 32%

The average index score of each age group was calculated (Table 5.8) according to
participants’ age group. Millennials have the lowest index score which indicates they are more
engaged with the supermarket service offerings than any other age group. In addition,
Millennials have the highest amount of supermarket loyalist 45%, which indicates the
Millennial group is more engaged with supermarket service offerings than others.

What are the key differences in engagement level compared to others? To determine
the differences the SEI was concentrated topic wise. Further data will be analysed based on
supermarket loyalist feedback to determine the differences.

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 Topic 2 : Instore shopping behaviour
4.0 3.7
3.3 3.4
3.5
3.0 2.7
2.4 2.3 2.3
2.5 2.1
1.9
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
Q7 Q8 Q11 Q12 Q13 R Q15

under 19 Millennial 26-35 36-45 45 above

Q7 – Compare price prior purchasing

Q8 – I consider others comments prior purchasing
Q11 – Special promotions effects my supermarket choice
Q12 – I shop more than usual whilst special offers
Q13 – Receiving too much of promotional advertisements are negatively impact
purchasing
Q14 – Loyalty card special deals influence purchasing

Figure 5. 9 Supermarket index score (instore shopping behaviour age group wise)

As seen above, the topic instore shopping behaviour was the concentrated area taken
from the supermarket engagement index. The index scores show some variations in the line
graph which reveal differences in the engagement level of different age groups with
supermarket service offerings. Focusing on Millennials, their index scores are low on Q8, Q11
and Q12 (Figure 5.9), which is Millennials refer others comments to decide on a supermarket
brand. Further they are more engage with supermarket specials than others. Specials are a price
reduction and cost saving for consumers. Will there be a connection in between these two
factors? Will there be differences in supermarket choice. The following section will discuss
these points.

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Price and specials offerings and engagement level of age groups.

During findings it was revealed price and specials are a very influential on all age
categories. (

Note. N = 154

)
Preferred supermarket based on age
showed 40% of
70% 61%
all 60% 54%
44% 47%
50% 42%
40% 33%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Under 19 Millennials 26-35 36-45 45 Above

PakNsave New World Countdown

participants are loyalist on price whilst an average of 43% of all participants are loyalist to
specials (Figure 5.5). However, these factors may motivate different age groups differently.
Supermarket brand choice, frequency of shopping and using the loyalty cards could go hand in
hand.

PAK’nSAVE New World Countdown

Under 19 Price product range Product quality

Millennials Price Convenience Product quality
26-35 Price Product quality Convenience

36-45 Price Product quality Convenience

Above 45 Price Product quality Product range

Figure 5. 10 Preferred supermarket age wise and main influences

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(Figure 5.10) identifies the preference of the supermarket brand by different age groups.

PAK’nSAVE was the preferred brand for most of the age groups except for the above
45 age group. Drawing the attention to criteria which influences their supermarket brand choice
the most, (Figure 5.10), there are similarities in both findings. The age groups which visit
PAK’nSAVE most strongly agree that price is the key element, whilst for above 45 age group,
it is range of products. Categorizing the age groups which prefer to visit three supermarkets
separately (Figure 5.9) and which criteria influence them the most, all participants of each age
group whose preferred supermarket brand was PAK’nSAVE agreed that price was the most
influential criteria of all. Through these results it can be determined that PAK’nSAVE is the
most price sensitive supermarket choice for all groups.

Table 5. 9 Most influential criteria by age

under 19 Millennials 26-34 35-45 45 above

Price 24% 31% 32% 26% 21%
Range of
16% 15% 19% 16% 23%
products

According to a participant aged 36-45 supermarket A is the most preferred supermarket

for lowest price “ I think it is the price I mean, because when you take I mean, there are three
brands, And when we first came in most of the people were visiting this particular supermarket
and was recommended, you should go to this place because the price is really low. You know,
that habit still continues. And that's what happened yet”. An above 45 age group-participant
commented her requirement as “As I am older, I need to shop where I know where stuff is. Then
shop around in a place that I'm not familiar with its more inconvenient for me”, “Even if it is
20-30 cents higher than supermarket and it’s least, I need to go to supermarket A.” Price is not
a main concern as convenience is more of a priority for her. The survey results and interview
results both agree on same choice of supermarkets.

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 However, findings were only able to identify a difference between age group above 45
from the others. There was no distinguishing difference in between Millennial from the other
age groups under 19, 26-35 and 36-45. All these four age groups were highly engaged with
price offer.

However, there were separate segments of customers in each age category which visit
other supermarkets such as New World and Countdown. For them the main influences differ
from price. Even though PAK’nSAVE is the cheapest among all supermarkets there could still
be much more attractive special price promotions in other supermarket brands. The customers
whose main influence is quality and range of products or convenience could see these specials
as beneficial and visit the store. An analysis had been done to explore this section in depth.

Table 5. 10 Demographic profile of supermarkets loyalist on specials

Both age
Males Females
groups
Under 19 8% 25% 33%
Millennial 10% 36% 46%
26-35 10% 33% 43%
36-45 19% 22% 41%
45 above 13% 20% 33%

The analysis (Table 5.10) revealed a similarity in the results from three age groups.
Along with Millennials, the 26-35 and 36-45 age groups also have a high percentage of loyalist
over specials influence them to select a supermarket brand. Further females are more
influenced than males in all age categories. These findings are similar to the selection of
supermarket brand choice. As per (Figure 5.10) the above 45 age group mostly visits New
World supermarket and 33% of under 19 age group visit New World, which is a higher
percentage compared to other age groups. Both under 19 and above 45 participants revealed
the main influence for them to visit New World is for range and quality of products. From the
results it is evident that these two age groups are not engaged through specials. On the other

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hand, the Millennials, 26-35 and 36-45 are more engaged with specials and amongst the 16
loyalists yet the most preferred supermarket is PAK’nSAVE (Figure 5.11).

Specials loyalist supermarket brand choice

no
response,
4, 25%
Paknsave, 8,
Countdown, 50%
3, 19%

New World, 1, 6%

Paknsave New World Countdown no response

Figure 5. 11 Specials loyalist supermarket brand choice

During the interviews none of the participants agreed that specials are influential on the
decision of supermarket brand.

Another aspect of specials is the influence on frequency of shopping. Depending on the

special deals, individuals could visit the store more frequently. As revealed in above paragraph
there is a difference identified between engagement level on specials and age. A comparison
on frequency of shopping was done on the different age groups. In (Figure 5.12) under 19 and
above 45 age groups visit the supermarket more frequently than others. But there is no
significant change in frequency as all participants visit once a week at the same percentage.
The findings do not reflect a connection in between specials and frequency of shopping.

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 Shopping frequency
60% 56%

50% 46%
41%
39%
40%
30%
20%
10%
10% 4%

0%
Multiple days a week One a week evryother week

Under 19, above 45 Millennial,26-35,36-45

Figure 5. 12 Shopping frequency age group wise

During the interviews the connection between specials and loyalty card was reviewed.
A Millennial commented that he carries the loyalty card as it benefits him by saving him money
on specials but another participant age 36-45 commented “When you swipe the card more, you
get more points you get more discounts on your fuel. OK. So that's the only motive of using the
loyalty card”. He did not agree on a benefit on specials carrying the loyalty card. The above
45 participants did not comment on loyalty card influence on specials either.

Loyalist, loyalty card infuence level

30%
26%
25%
20%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Under 19,above 45 Millennial,26-35,36-45

Figure 5. 13 Age group comparison on supermarket loyalist on loyalty card engagement

A comparison was done based on age groups (Figure 5.13) to test the loyalty card
results of the survey results. The results which compares the agreement on loyalty card
influence to select a supermarket shows a different finding. The age groups which are more
influenced by specials (Millennials,26-35,36-45) have a low percentage agreement, whilst the

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age groups which are not so concerned about price and specials are more influenced by the
loyalty cards. These findings indicate a benefit for consumers in having a loyalty card over
specials. However, a loyalty card may help them to gain other benefits which were mentioned
by the participants.

Preferred method of communication and demographics

The SEI identified a variation for question 13 which is about the negative impact of
over-advertising on specials. Millennials index score was 3.7, the highest of all age groups.
This question measured the negative effect of communication and was reversed scored,
therefore Millennials believe too much advertising negatively affects them more, when
compared to others. This finding lead to further analysis on communication approaches used
and the effectiveness of them. Preferred communication methods of different age groups were
also examined.

Figure 5.3 shows Millennials prefer to use social media and TV/Radio as their preferred
modes of communication of specials more than other age groups. A comparison was done on
supermarket loyalist on this section (Table 5.11). It reveals that along with Millennials, under
19 and 26-34 age groups also selected social media as their preferred way of communication
of specials. An average of 46% of these three age categories strongly selected social media as
their preferred method of communication. However, in these three age categories the there are
no similarities in second choices. The survey (Figure 5.14) also identified differences based on
gender. Comparing the results on social media it is clear females are more influenced than
males on all three age categories under19, Millennials and 26-35. However, males prefer to get
to know the specials in store more than females.

The interview results revealed that Millennials get the information on specials in the
store and through social media. Whilst the above 45 participants are informed through news
bulletins. These results are similar with the survey results. However, a participant age 36-45
commented “Other than the email, if they can conduct some kind of commercials like radio
because that's a good method because we got exposed to a lot of real listening to a lot of
radio channels. And maybe some kind of billboards or any kind of banners or something. The

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only method that I am using at the moment in emails. So other than that, I prefer to take and
use something else that would be big eye catcher”. He suggested multiple methods such as
radio, billboards and emails would be more influential.

Table 5. 11 preferred communication method compared by age

Newspaper
Social Word of Shopping Not
Email/Internet TV/Radio & free
Media mouth in store interested
bulletin
Under 19 45% 0% 9% 0% 9% 36% 0%
19-25 47% 14% 22% 0% 3% 14% 0%
26-34 46% 25% 2% 0% 2% 23% 2%
35-45 28% 25% 3% 0% 3% 39% 3%
45 above 29% 7% 14% 0% 43% 0% 7%

Communication and demography

40% 36%
33%
35%
29%
30% 27%
25%
25%
19%
20% 17%
15% 11%
10%

5%

0%
Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female
Under 19 19-25 26-34 35-45 45 above

social media TV/Radio News paper & free bulletin Shopping in store

Figure 5. 14 Preferred communication methods vs demography

These findings revealed Millennials prefer social media more than any other mode.
Under 19 age group and 26-35 age group also prefer social media at almost same percentage
as Millennials. Therefor findings cannot argue Millennials are the only group who prefer social
media more than others. However results show that age groups who were born after 1983 are
more influenced by social media than born before 1983. Social media will be a good platform

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to advertise to age groups born after 1983. Further results revealed that females born before
1983 prefer social media 20% more than males. However, managing a mix of all methods of
communication is important as the above 45 age group indicate that newsletters and TV/Radio
advertisements are still very effective.

Millennials measuring the value of caring for the community

The finding sections under the topic Corporate citizenship and supermarkets focused
on how supermarkets take measures to protect the environment and create value to the
community, and to what extent participants’ engagement is based on how they value these acts.

Corporate citizenship
2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0
Q23 Q24 Q25 Q26 Q27

under 19 Millennial 26-35 36-45 45 above

Q23 - It is important for supermarkets to have a proper waste management

Q24 - It is important for supermarkets to support the community
Q25 - It is important for supermarkets to look after the well-being of staff.
Q26 - It is important for supermarkets to be transparent with pricing
Q27 - It is important for supermarkets to practice a strict food safety program.

Figure 5. 15 Supermarket Engagement Index (Corporate Citizenship)

According to (Figure 5.15) Millennial has the lowest SEI score on this topic, the
environment and social responsibility, indicating they are more engaged with these offerings
than any other age group. Specifically questions 23 to 25 see a difference in index score of

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Millennials than others. Millennials seems to be very engaged by these supermarket activities
than others. A further analysis had been done using loyalist on this section.

Table 5. 12 Influence by demographics towards social and environmental responsibility

Male Female Both age groups

Under 19 3% 6% 9%
Millennial 4% 14% 19%
26-35 6% 8% 14%
36-45 8% 6% 15%
45 above 2% 7% 9%

This table identified some interesting demographic variables. As expected, Millennials

are the most influential age group of loyalists in total (19%), with females being more engaged
than males, 14% females. However, age groups 26-35 and 36-45 loyalists are not far behind
indicating their concern for supermarkets acts towards environment and society. On the other
hand, it is seen that under 19 age group and above 45 age group have a low agreement 9% in
this section showing that they are not influenced by these activities as much.

A focus on community support in the findings of the interview responses revealed

almost similar findings as one Millennial commented “But again, like I said, it's a very cool
thing to do. And yes, it would influence me to a certain extent in choosing where I shop”.
Another two participants are not influenced by this factor. The participant age 36-45
commented “Personally, I believe that's a great move. I mean, you can do something in return
to the society. That would be great, but that won't affect much for my choosing a supermarket
brand” and an above 45 participant commented “I think it’s a two-way thing and end of the day
it’s all about money. Supermarkets talk about one thing and does another”. There is a similarity
in findings on Millennial comments in interviews with survey findings indicating this age group
does consider the value of environment and social activities. However, there is a slight disparity
in findings for the 36-45 age group. There are three main supermarket brands and they have
their own practices of environment and social responsibility. The influence level on participants
could lead them to decide on the supermarket brand. Out of 127 participants in age groups
Millennials, 26-35 and 36-45 there are 42 loyalists for community and environment
responsibility. 42 participants are strongly influenced by community and environment support.

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The preferred supermarket of these loyalists is still PAK’nSAVE (Figure 5.16). 56% visit
PAK’nSAVE with no significance difference towards New World and Countdown
supermarkets. It is hard to determine with these results that environmental and social activities
does impact on supermarket selection. These findings could get related to the comment made
by the 36-45 age group participant “If I get to know better about this it might change my choice
of supermarket. But at the moment I am not much concern”. The impact of social and
environment responsibility could be less compared to other influences on change of
supermarket brand.

Overall supermarket choice Millennial,26-35,36-45

Non
respond
ent 23, Non
15% respondent,
15, 26%

Coutdown,
PAK’nSAVE,
27, 18%
76, 49% PAK'nSAVE,
Coutdown, 32, 56%
5, 9%
New
World, New World,
28, 18% 5, 9%

Figure 5. 16 Loyalist of corporate citizenship and all participants supermarket brand choice

Through the findings on this section it was revealed that female Millennials do have a strong
engagement with environment and social responsibility acts of supermarkets. Three age groups,
Millennials, 26-35 and 36-45, are more influenced than the under 19 and above 45 age groups
on these acts. However, the impact of environment and social responsibility had not created a
platform to influence consumers to give preference to a supermarket brand choice.

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Online shopping behavior and demographics

Online shopping behaviour

3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
Q18 Q19 Q20 Q21 Q22

under 19 Millennial 26-35 36-45 45 above

Q18 –Fully change to online shopping

Q19–Satisfied with present supermarket online offering
Q20 – Willing to pay extra and change the service
Q21 – I fell online is cost effective and time saving
Q21 – I am willing to change the supermarket brand based on online service

Figure 5. 17 Supermarket Engagement Index (Online shopping behaviour)

Moving away from traditional instore shopping the research covered aspects of online
ordering facility. The index form under this section (Figure 5.17) indicates variations between
the different age groups. However, the agreement level on three age groups, Millennials and
36-45 age groups seems parallel which could indicate similarities. A further analysis was done
using supermarket loyalist on this section. It was revealed in (Figure 5.6) that only 30% of the
participants had tried online deliveries.

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 Online ordering by age
38%
40% 33%
31%
30% 25% 24%
20%

10%

0%
Under 19 Millennial 26-35 36-45 45 above

Figure 5. 18 Online ordering by age

Of that 30% (Figure 5.18) the highest percentage of users are in age category 36-45 at
38%. Apart from that there is no distinguishing difference as every age group has a relatively
equal participation. However, based on gender (Table 5.13) one significant difference is
identified. That is amongst above 45 age category the participation is only from females.

Table 5. 13
Online ordering by gender

Male Female

Under 19 8% 17%

Millennial 13% 18%

26-35 6% 18%

36-45 19% 19%

45 above 0% 33%

As almost every age group has participation in the online ordering facility it is important
to analyse their satisfaction on present offerings and how willing they are to change the brand.

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 Online service offerings
45% 43%
40%
35%
30% 28%
25%
25% 23%
21%
18%
20% 16%
15%
8% 9%
10% 6%
5%
0%
Under 19 Millennial 26-35 36-45 45 above

I am willing to pay extra for a better service.

I am satisfied with the present online service offerings.

Figure 5. 19 Comparison on present service offerings and willingness to change

Figure 5.19 identified the above 45 age group has strong satisfaction at 13% and very
low percentage agreed to change the brand. A similar pattern was identified in age categories
26-35 and 36-45 with the satisfied with present offering average of 12% being higher than
willing to change percentage average of 4%. With these results we can determine that these
three age groups are satisfied with their present online service offering. Although the other two
age categories Millennials and under 19 have a higher percentage on satisfaction with present
online offerings averaging 21%, the percentage of willing to change is also high: average 36%.

In the previous topic a similarity in between Under 19 and Millennial generation was
also revealed under the best mode of communication category. Both these age groups prefer
social media platform, which is related to technological communication methods. Online
ordering is also a technological platform and there could be a tendency that these two age
groups evaluate online ordering differently to other age groups.

The usage of online ordering could be defined as an alternative to instore shopping.

Online ordering could have a reverse effect on frequency of shopping. Comparing the
frequency of shopping may give a better understanding of the impact of online ordering.
Findings from (Error! Reference source not found.) revealed that the most common shopping

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frequency for all age groups are multiple days a week. 50% of the total participants agreed on
this. Comparing this most common shopping habit amongst age groups (Figure 5.20) it was
revealed that Under 19 and Millennials have a low percentage compared to other age groups
for visiting the store. A further pattern was identified as the older the age groups, the more
frequent the visits had been. A connection between online ordering and frequency of shopping
was revealed.

Multiple days a week

100% 92%

80%

60% 47% 51%

42%
33%
40%

20%

0%
Under 19 Millennials 26-34 36-45 45 above

Figure 5. 20 Supermarket visits multiple days a week compared by age group

Further investigation (Table 5.14) revealed that under 19 and Millennials are willing to
change traditional shopping to online ordering more than other age groups. There is a
connection in between these two findings as Under 19 and Millennials are visiting the stores
less frequent and willing to change to online ordering more than others.

Table 5. 14 Willing to fully change to online shopping on demographics

Male Female Both age groups

Under 19 18% 9% 27%
Millennial 16% 12% 28%
26-35 0% 9% 9%
36-45 13% 0% 13%
45 above 0% 27% 27%

A comparison of the findings with interviews revealed (Table 5.5) the Millennial who
orders groceries online and judges it the most convenient method of purchasing groceries.
Further he is willing to change the supermarket brand based on a good online offering. The
results of the survey are in line with the interview findings. Further, a Millennial commented
“I think it's really convenient. Makes life easy for people and especially, maybe it's more suited

117
for the older crowd, you know, especially in times like this where we're in a lockdown. I feel
like online shopping is the way and it totally makes life easier for people”. He suggested
regardless of age, online ordering is a convenient way of purchasing groceries. However, both
of the other participants were not in favour of this option as an above 45 participant commented
“If I am really old and physically unable and if there no one to get for me I would consider”.
Online ordering is the least favourite option and a 36-45 participant commented “my feeling is
that yes, that is a good, convenient way but If I buy, I would like to buy only the dry. Meat or
the vegetable fresh item from the online ordering is bit of a concern to me. I would only
consider general groceries”. This response raised a concern over the quality of perishable
goods. These findings on non-Millennials are in line with the survey findings as 37% (Figure
5.6) have a concern over reliability. Overall, interview results differed from survey results, but
resulted in clear findings. Millennial is the age group which is influenced by online ordering.

These findings were not able to identify a distinguishing factor in Millennial’s

evaluating differently the online ordering facility from others. However, findings revealed two
age groups, under 19 and Millennials who are born after 1994, have a tendency towards
evaluating online ordering than others. It could be evaluated by them as a new trend. On the
other hand, above 45 females and 36-45 age group are actively involved in online deliveries as
well. They seem to be satisfied with the present online services and not willing to evaluate
services to change the brands. They could be evaluating the value of convenience on this
platform.

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 Millennial behaviour towards supermarket service and offering

Supermarket service and offerings

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0
Q28 Q29 Q30

under 19 Millennial 26-35 36-45 45 above

Q28 – Availability of local (NZ produced) products range effect my supermarket choice
Q29 - Availability of organic products range effect my choice
Q30 - Availability of gluten free range effect my supermarket choice

Figure 5. 21 Supermarket Engagement Index (Supermarket service and offerings)

Millennials have a low index score for this topic, which means the engagement with these
offerings is high. What made them distinguished from the rest of the age groups is investigated
through analysing loyalties.

Table 5. 15 Loyalty Millennials vs overall Millennials comparison over service offerings

supermarket choice

Strongly Engaged Millennials Overall Millennials

Both age
Male Females Both age groups Male Females
groups
3% 26% 29% 33% 64%

PAK’nSAVE 100% 20% 27% 13% 28% 44%

New World 8% 8% 15%

Countdown 10% 10% 5% 15%

Non response 0% 70% 70% 8% 36% 26%

An analysis of Table 5.15 shows that overall, 29% of Millennials loyalists of

supermarket service offerings out of which female Millennials account for 26%. However,
there was no difference in supermarket brand choice detected through the comparison made.

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PAK’nSAVE is still the preferred supermarket for loyalists for service offerings. One of the
downfalls in this comparison is the high nonresponse rate: 70% from Millennial loyalists.
Though the results revealed Millennials are more engaged with the range of NZ manufactured
products, gluten free product range and organic product range, the influence on deciding on a
separate supermarket brand was not identified.

High nonresponse rate of Millennial loyalists could be the reason for not reflecting a
proper finding on supermarket brand choice. To cross check the answer, the total number of
loyalists towards service offering 42 participants from all age groups were analysed (Figure
5.22). A comparison was done on this group against the overall supermarket selection. Yet
again a difference is not distinguishable. PAK’nSAVE still shows as the preferred supermarket
for 52% participants for the above cluster.

Supermarket service offering Overall participants

loyalists supermarket choice
Non
respondent, 23,
15%
Non
responses,
9, 22%
Coutdown PakNsave,
Countdown, PaknSave, 27, 18% 76, 49%
6, 14% 22, 52%

New New
World, 5, World, 28,
12% 18%

Figure 5. 22 Supermarket service offerings comparison over brand choice

Findings on survey does not reflect any identification on an influence level of supermarket
service offerings towards brand choice.

Focusing on interview findings, all three participants conveyed they are not avid
consumers of products in this category and would be least impacted in supermarket brand
choice. However, the Millennial commented “I know. I totally agree with them. I mean, if that's

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what their preference is, then it's fair that they've got allocated area in a supermarket where
they could just go in and pick up their stuff. So, it's pretty cool for supermarkets to do it. And I
hope supermarkets which don't do it should start doing it in the future.” A similar comment
was made by an above 45 participant as well, “Yeah, I like the idea of vegan and plant-based
proteins, which is the future. Food stuff segregated this into the supermarkets, and I like to
whole idea of having a separate area for that. It does help customers who need to buy these”
Even though these participants are not particularly influenced by these ranges of products, they
acknowledge the importance of this range and how it could affect the customers who are
concerned. As one participant commented, there could be a preference over one supermarket
brand who had implemented a separate section for these product ranges.

Though the findings do not reflect a large impact on supermarket brand choice, 26% of
total participants are concerned about these service offerings with Millennials having as high
as 29%. Again, females show a higher tendency based on these ranges of products.

Gender and Shopping habits

Throughout all the topics it has been revealed that gender has a big influence on
engagement level with supermarket offerings. Generally, females are more engaged than males
on all aspects. Their shopping frequency and preferred supermarket brand could make a
difference. An analysis was done on this area. (Table 5.16) shows there is no significant
difference in shopping frequency but there is a slight difference identified as males visit
supermarket brand Countdown more than females.

Table 5. 16 Shopping patterns and gender

Males Females
Multiple days a week 48% 48%
One a week 41% 37%
PAK’nSAVE 44% 52%
New World 21% 16%
Countdown 23% 14%

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 There should be a difference in consumer behaviour in visiting Countdown supermarket
amongst this group more than others.

Table 5. 17 Countdown male customer preference

Males Females Both age groups

Convenience 79% 54% 69%

One key finding which was revealed through the survey (Table 5.19) is that a high
percentage (79%) of males who visit Countdown require convenience compared to females.
This group could judge Countdown as more convenient for them. Apart from this, according
to (Error! Reference source not found.) there are 43% participants who visit New World and
Countdown supermarkets. During the analysis it was revealed PAK’nSAVE is the most
preferred supermarket for price sensitivity. But what criteria matters most for the other
supermarket visits? Even though there were lot of supermarket engagements reviewed during
the analysis, there were no sufficient indications on how different age groups are influenced to
choose different supermarket brands. The SEI for each supermarket analysed to get more
insight.

Table 5. 18 Supermarket engagement index score average

Average Index Score
PAK’nSAVE 2.3
New World 2.6
Countdown 2.6

There is no significant difference identified amongst customers visiting three different

supermarket brands based on their engagement level on different offerings. A different
analytical method was be required to compare the engagement level on supermarket brands.
Throughout the analysis it was revealed that PAK’nSAVE is more influential for price. Leaving
PAK’nSAVE aside, a comparison had been done of participants who selected Countdown and
New World supermarkets. The comparison was also done considering gender difference.

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Table 5. 19 Countdown and New World customer index score comparison

Supermarket
brand Gender Topic 2 : instore shopping behavior Topic 5 : Supermarket service offerings
Special promotions I shop more than Willing to fully Availability of Availability of gluten
effects my usual when change to organic free range effects
supermarket choice there's specials online products
shopping effects

Males 2.6 3.7 3.3 2.4 3.8

Countdown Females 1.8 2.7 3.2 2.6 2.5

Males 1.9 1.9 2.7 2.1 2.6

New World Females 3.0 2.7 2.5 2.7 3.5

Table identified some key differences in engagement level. Comparing the index scores
of males and females who visit Countdown and New World some key differences in scores
were identified. The index score of males who visit Countdown is higher than females which
means their engagement level with those supermarket offerings are low. On the other hand,
males’ index score amongst participants who visit New World is low which indicates their
engagement with supermarket offering is high. These findings reveal that males who visit
Countdown are not largely influenced by special promotions, but males who visit New World
have a high engagement. Similarly, the gluten free and organic product range also show
different index scores. Males who visit New world are more engaged with this supermarket
offering than Countdown customers. Through this analysis it is revealed that gender does have
an influence in supermarket engagement. Females who visit Countdown have a stronger
engagement with online ordering than males. This agrees with previous results as females are
more concern about online ordering. These findings reveal that New World supermarket
shoppers are more engaged with specials, Gluten free and Organic products than Countdown
shoppers. Whilst Countdown are more engaged by convenience and online grocery deliveries.
The interview data didn’t reveal sufficient information to confirm survey findings.

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 5.4 Conclusion

This chapter presented the findings on survey, questionnaire and interviews

conducted. Findings were analysed and discussed according to different topics relating to the
research sub- questions. The researcher was able to gather findings to answer the main
research question Consumer behaviour: The case of Millennial engagement with
supermarkets. The analysis identified consumer decision making in NZ deviates based on age
and gender. Different generations have different needs and wants. Supermarkets try various
strategies to attract all range of customers. These attractions influence the age groups
differently.

Throughout the research it was revealed that in general Millennials have a high
engagement with supermarket offerings. They evaluate the supermarket offerings slightly
differently to other age groups. However, going into detail on subtopics specifically it was
revealed Millennials show a lot of similarities with other age groups whilst evaluating the
supermarket offerings. It was hard to distinguish their evaluation criteria as entirely different
to other age groups.

Investigating the topic of communication, how supermarkets advertise their special

promotions, it was found that the age groups who were born after 1983 - under 19, Millennials
and 26-35 mostly indicate social media as their preferred communication platform, whereas
other age groups prefer newsletters and instore advertising. Yet again, a connection between
under 19 age group and Millennials was discovered in relation to online deliveries. These
groups seem to prefer online shopping in a move away from traditional shopping. For them it
is a generational motivation. However, the other age groups such as 36-45 and above 45 also
use online delivery which they see as a more convenient platform. There is a difference between
age groups’ evaluations of the same supermarket service offering.

A distinguishing finding was that Millennials are very concerned about the service
offerings of supermarkets. The Gluten free range, Organic range and NZ products are much
more preferred by Millennials than other age groups. Social and environmental responsibility

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is becoming a prominent concern amongst many age groups. Millennials, 26-35 and 36-45 age
group are very concerned about these factors and there is a tendency to evaluate the
supermarket brand engagement based on this factor. This finding reveals there is a similarity
in the generation born between 1974 and 2000 who are more concern about the environment
and social responsibility. That there is a difference in consumer behaviour on gender was also
identified. Females are more attracted to price and specials which influence their choice of
purchase than males. It is also females who demand the service offerings as gluten free and
organic product range. Further, they value the social and environmental activities done by
supermarkets more than males. However, there was no significant difference identified in
supermarket brand choice or frequency amongst males and females.

Overall NZ consumers are price sensitive. The only age group that is not particularly
concerned about price is above 45 age group. According to the influences and supermarket
service offerings, key findings on three supermarkets brands were identified. PackNsave is the
most preferred supermarket; it is the cheapest option for most of the participants and seemed
to attract the majority of participants. New World supermarket is the choice of above 45 and
most of the under 19 age group. It appears to offer good special promotions and range of
products. Gluten free and organic product range also seem to be quite popular amongst New
World customers. Countdown is favoured for convenience, range of products and online
deliveries. These three supermarkets seem to be positioning in three different segments,
however, all age categories have needs and wants satisfied by supermarket brand and it is
difficult to determine a clearly preferred supermarket brand choice for a specific age group.

Limitations

The researcher identified some limitations in the survey and interviews which affected
the results. The demographic variables considered in the questionnaire were age and gender
only. The findings were not enough to evaluate differences between family size and consumer
behaviours. Further investigation could include connection between income levels and
shopping cart. These criteria could give more data to analyse and create a deeper understanding
of NZ consumer behaviour and how it differs in demographic profiles.

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 The majority of the questionnaires were completed by SIT students. The researcher
believes most of the Millennial participation was represented by SIT students. Had more time
and resources been available to distribute the survey throughout NZ, the reliability of responses
would be much higher. Further, the researcher believes more interviews could have been
conducted, as these permitted evaluation of the differences between gender behaviours and
choices. In addition, there was no representation from age groups under 19 and 26-35.

Generalisations

This research was based on Millennials and finding what changes their consumer
behaviour. The Millennial age category was taken as aged 19-25 by the year 2019. There was
an overall difference in supermarket engagement level of this age group compared to others.
However, going into detail there were not many differences in consumer behaviour which
could be identified as specific to Millennials. There were a lot of similarities between
Millennials and other age groups. Some similarities discovered were based on different birth
years. Two different consumer behaviour patterns were identified as in between age group
1983-2004 and similarly age group between 1974-2000. Past studies and various definitions
on Millennials were researched. The researcher believes these different theories based on
generational change tend to exaggerate the significance of Millennials.

Chapter six will discuss the recommendations decided by the researcher based on the findings
presented in the chapter five.

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 6. Recommendations and conclusion

Chapter overview

This chapter provides an overview of the key findings. How the findings relate to each
of the research questions and past studies will be discussed separately and linked to main
question in order to find a solution. Based on the implications to management in the
supermarket industry recommendations will be made. The implication for theoretical models
used to understand the industry will be discussed and finally and the limitations encountered
will be addressed.

6.1 Summary of research findings

The research project set out to discover whether Millennials (people aged 19-25 by
2019) have a different evaluation of supermarkets than other age groups, reflected in their
buying behaviour and engagement with supermarket marketing strategies. The research was
motivated by evidence from earlier research that Millennials are more technologically driven
than other age groups, using social media more than other generations and tending to follow
latest trends. It found differences in Millennials’ consumer behaviour compared to other
groups, reporting that they are generally more health conscious and prefer more organic and
gluten free products. Millennials were also shown to prefer purchasing groceries online, to be
very concerned about environment and social responsibility activities of supermarket
companies. These differences in Millennial’s behaviours could challenge supermarkets in
terms of catering to their specific requirements in the future. To evaluate whether Millennial
consumer behaviour is in fact different from other age groups, the current Research project
investigated the relationship between Millennials and supermarkets using these established
criteria.

There are three ways the findings of this research could be interpreted. One being
Millennials’ consumer behaviour is not different from others. The actual findings are not
sufficient to prove Millennials employ different selection criteria for supermarket brands to
other age groups.

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 The second interpretation is Millennials show strikingly few differences from others in
terms of usage of technology and demand for supermarket service offerings such as NZ
manufactured, gluten free and organic range products. Millennials are one of the generations
who prefer social media for communication and value online deliveries of groceries more than
older age groups. They are a generation who is more willing to change to online grocery
shopping than others.

Third interpretation is the results are specific to the sample selected. The results reflect
certain aspects of individuals who are mostly student based in Invercargill and their
preferences.

The research could be concluded using any of the three interpretations. However, the
conclusions should reflect the solutions arrived at from the answers to the research questions.

6.2 Answering the research questions

Question 1

Are millennials more or less influenced, either positively or negatively by supermarket

promotions than other age groups?
Many studies had been done on sales and promotions activities in the
supermarket industry. Two studies in particular, (Mason,Paksov and Wilkenson, 1982;
Banovic, Chapman, Nicholas and Supramaniam, 2006), state that special promotion activities
had shown a short term increase in sales for supermarkets. However, past studies do not reveal
how successful the promotions are in attracting more consumers. During this study it was
revealed NZ supermarkets are regularly engaged in special promotions. It was evident from
this study that specials are very attractive to many consumers (43%)

There are many factors which could affect consumers to influence towards specials.
Past studies had investigated whether demographic factors influenced level of influence, citing
different arguments. According to Haans and Gijsbrechts (2011) demographic factor of income
level had a direct impact on achieving influence through special promotions. Further to this,

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Patel, (2011), stated demographic factors such as gender or education level does not have an
impact on influence towards special promotions. This new study agrees with Haans and
Gijsbrechts, (2011) that special promotions do effect a change in influence level based on age
and gender. Females are more sensitive towards specials than men. Further age groups born
between 1974 - 2000 are more engaged with supermarket special promotions than others.

There were no specific past studies done to investigate whether Millennials are more
engages with supermarket based on promotions than others. The new findings were also not
able to distinguish influence level of Millennials from others. This could be a limitation due to
the researcher’s definitition of Millennials (those born between 1994-2000) which was derived
from the diverse definitions offered by current researchers, including a recent study which
defined the last birth year of Millennials as 1981 (Severo, Guimarães, Dellarmelin & Ribeiro,
2019). However there is a new reveal as age group born in between 1974-2000 are more
engaged with special promotions than others.Therefore the new evidance cannot support that
Millennials are influenced by special promotions. An additional finding is that females are
more enaged with special promotion than men.

Question 2

What criteria influence the selection of a supermarket among millennials, and do these
criteria differ from those of other age groups?

How Millennials’ consumer behavior differs from other age groups had also
been researched previously. Grev (2016) states Millennials prefer mainly niche products which
are considered to be healthier. They are very concerned about gluten free product range. Kuhns
and Saksena (2017) revealed that Millennial generation have a preference to purchase prepared
food, processed food and instant baby food more than other generations. Overall, it was found
that there is a difference in Millennials’ product selection criteria. This could influence their
selection of supermarket brand differently from the rest of the groups.

This was tested during the study. Comparing different topics, findings revealed
Millennials are engaged with supeprmarket service offerings more than any other age group,
for example NZ manufactured, gluten free and organic product range. Thesd findings match

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with the previous study done by Grev (2016). It was revealed that female Millennials are more
enaged than males in purchasing the above products.

Another factor which influences Millennials more than others is word of mouth.
Millennials have a high tendency of taking others’ opinions into account when deciding on a
supermarket brand, more than others.

Eventhough Millennials preffer to purchase above products and listen to others’

opinions more than other age groups there is no correlation to supermarket brand choices.

Question 3
Are Millennials more or less influenced, either positively or negatively by the social and
environmental responsibility of supermarkets than are other age groups?

Environment and social concerns have been an important part of supermarket industry
behaviour. Past studies had discussed how supermarkets got involved in good environment and
social practices, however the effort made by supermarkets towards society and environment
could be conveyed to the public either positively or negatively. Past studies about Sainsbuy’s
actions in this area resulted in two different outcomes. According to Rohwer and Topic (2019)
a community support action by Sainsbury’s was taken by the public positively whilst according
to Barton (2007) an action related to environmental concern was very unpopular amongst the
public. A study done by Ferdous and Aziz (2014) identified that corporate social resnsibility
does have an impact on influencing consumers. They further stated that the more educated the
consumers, the more influenced they were. Further studies (Benjamin and Munyoki, 2013;
Lauritsen and Perks, 2015) revealed that consumers value supermarket behaviour which is
positively linked to the environment and social responsibility.

Focusing on past studies done on Millennials by Lowes (2015) , it could be seen that
Millennials are very concerned about the environment and social responsibility. Another study
conducted by Harun, Prybutok and Prybutok (2018) on fast food outlets, revealed that
millennials tend to purchase food from outlets which are more engaged with society and the
environment. The new findings partly agree with these past studies. Millennials agreed that

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they are more influenced than other age groups on social and environmental activities.
However age groups 26-35 and 36-45 are close on percentage of loyalist compared to
Millennials leaving the under 19 age group and above 45 age group showing a different view
and attitude. They are hardly influenced by these activities. Therefore the new findings show
that consumers born between 1974 - 2000 are more concerned about the environment and social
responsibility than other age groups.

Eventhough these results identify different motivational levels based on age, they do
not identify influence on the choice of the supermarket brand. This could therefore lead to a
further investigation in future.

Question 4
Do millennials engage in online shopping more than other age groups?

Globally, online ordering is becoming more popular in many industries. A lot of studies
have been done evaluating this service. A study conducted by Melis,Campo, Breugelmans and
Lamey, (2015) revealed that online ordering is very important for the supermarket industry.
However, they stated that online ordering is demanded by one segment of customers only and
other customer segments still require traditional shopping. Therefore, making both options
attractive to consumers is beneficial to supermarkets in sustaining their business. The new
findings agree with these findings as 70% of participants prefer shopping in person and only
30% had ever done online shopping. The demand for online ordering in the supermarket
industry is rising and many UK based supermarket companies such as Sainsbury’s, Tesco and
Safeway had started making online ordering more competitive, (Quader and Shahedul, 2008).

As the demand for online ordering is rising, one group of researcher’s state that it is
important for the supermarket management to understand the customer segments who are more
demanding for online services. However, there is debate on this point. Some researchers (Gupta
and Sethi 2016; Bauerova, 2019) revealed that Millennials and Generation Y are adopting
online deliveries readily as they are more technology savvy. The knowledge and engagement
of technology such as Internet, mobile phones and applications of these groups have an
influence on use of technologically based products such as online delivery system more than
other age groups. However, Kim & Ammeter, (2018) found online ordering is accepted by

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consumers based on their convenience and requirements, and age does not have an influence
on preference.

The new studies actually support both sides of the argument. It was revealed Under 19
age group or defined as Generation Y, and Millennials do evaluate the online services
differently from others, however they are willing to review and change supermarkets if a better
service is available at another supermarket, even if it costs a slight premium.

Other current finding of note is the age group 26-36 has the highest number of
participants ordering online groceries and above 45 females also have a big online ordering
presence. They are very satisfied with the present online ordering and are not willing to switch
the brands. These findings also agree with past studies, confirming that these age groups view
online ordering as a more convenient platform for them.

The new results do not differentiate Millennials from other generations but identify a
specific age group who were born after 1996 as viewing online delivery differently from other
age groups. Online ordering could be a technological motivation for these group. Further this
group is willing to fully change to online grocery shopping in future, whilst other age groups
see it as a more convenient platform. They tend to use this service as a second option whilst
primary focus would be for instore shopping. This study indicates further investigation into
online ordering of groceries would be valuable.

Considering the answers to research questions the Researcher suggests a solution for
the main research question ‘Do millennials (people aged 19 – 25 in 2019)’ differ in their
evaluation and use of supermarkets from other age groups?

The best suitable interpretation for the study is the second one which states that
Millennials do have differences in consumer behavior than others. Millennials evaluate the
product range differently than others and have a preference for NZ manufactured products and
organic and gluten free range. Further to this, Millennials evaluate online delivery differently

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compared to the older generations. They are more likely to fully change to online shopping in
the future than the older age groups, however the results do not capture a difference in
supermarket brand choice of Millennials compared to others. This is due to the first preference
being PAK’nSAVE due to price. Price could therefore overwhelm concern for other factors.

6.3 Comment on relationship to theoretical models

During chapter two the application of two models to evaluate the differences between
Millennials and the other age groups in distinguishing differences for the research questions
was discussed: Decision Making Process (DMP) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).

DMP Model

Purchasing groceries is different to purchasing a car or mobile phone. Supermarket grocery

sales is an industry which contains both physical and service aspects. Understanding the
consumer behaviour through DMP model in Supermarket industry is challenging. The findings
for the five steps in this model are explained below.

Need recognition

Grocery shopping is a continuous process. There was no difference in necessity. There was no
distinguishing difference in shopping behaviour identified, and demand in all age groups was
equal. The real need from customers could be interpreted as the price, convenience, product
range etc. The only difference identified was above 45 age group who are more concerned with
product range and convenience whilst all others are concerned about price.

Information search

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The information search is mainly concerned with specials. Differences identified were social
media being the preferred communication platform by under 19, Millennials and 26-35 age
groups whilst others require newsletter and TV, radio advertising.

Evaluation of alternatives

It is hard to determine with the details how consumers are evaluating the supermarket brands.
Even though results show a difference in Millennials’ engagement with supermarkets, there
was not enough evidence to explain how they evaluate the supermarkets.

Purchase decision

With the results we can only determine that purchase decision is based on various factors. Price
was a key influencer and other criteria could influence slightly differently. The results do not
capture how consumers make the purchase decision.

Post purchase evaluation

There was no testing on post purchase evaluation in this study.

The results were not sufficient to go through the entire model. DMP model is not
effective for identifying consumer behaviour in supermarket industry.

TAM
Although online ordering was used by 30% of participants, the research questions were not
designed to gain data to evaluate the data according to the model.

Neither DMP nor TAM were deemed appropriate models to identify differences in
consumer behaviour between Millennials and other age groups in supermarket industry.

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 6.4 Implications for Managers

Based on the findings the Researcher makes the following recommendations to the
management of supermarket industry.

Advertising

The young age groups born after 1983 are more disposed to using social media as an
informational platform whereas others prefer newsletters and in store advertising. T.V. and
Radio seem to be in demand as well. Advertising should be continued using multi-channels
and the social media presence should be improved to attract more young customers. Using two-
way communication platforms such as Facebook fan pages will be beneficial to get feedback
from customers as well.

Customer segmentation

It was identified that segmentation based on age the differences has some value in
determining how consumer behaviour is influenced. However, even though price proved the
most influential criteria for most of the age groups, other factors such as product range,
convenience and product quality also proved important. Supermarkets should focus online
ordering preferences according to under 19 and Millennials, and their social media campaign
should target under 19, Millennials and 26-35 age groups. Targeting the marketing campaigns
specifically to identified groups should net the expected results.

Development of online ordering facility

In NZ Countdown is the only supermarket brand officially engaging in online deliveries

in both North Island and South Island. The findings reveal there is a high tendency for the
young generation born after 1996 to completely change to online ordering in future. Therefore,
the other two supermarket brands PAK’nSAVE and New World should develop this service
right throughout NZ. Collaboration with a third-party provider on this would expedite the
process.

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Product range

A demand was identified from the Millennials towards products such as NZ manufactured,
gluten free and organic products. Demand for this range could develop in other groups of
customers also. Considering widening these product ranges could be beneficial to attract more
customers.

Environment and social responsibility

Supermarkets’ engagement in behaving responsibly towards the environment and

society had been evaluated by most of the participants. However, the interviews revealed that
the value supermarkets create is not communicated effectively to the public. If more dialogue
is created in this area, customers may be attracted by these practices over the long run of
business.

Targeting the above 45 age group.

The above 45 age group evaluate supermarkets mainly on the product range and
convenience factors. NZ population has a substantial number of people in the above 45 age
group, therefore there should be a separate strategy to target this group of customers. Improving
on parking and wheelchair access, providing a trolley assistant, focusing on positioning their
identified essentials at a convenient level are recommendations. These excellent customer
services are key areas in which supermarkets could improve to gain more above 45 customers
in stores.

6.5 Limitations

Evaluating consumer behaviour to find differences between Millennials and other age
groups’ consumer behaviour in supermarkets is a study with limited scope in a city in
Southland. The number of supermarkets is limited to four in Invercargill city. The study also

136
needed a more diverse sample of Millennials if it was to represent the whole country. The study
largely captures responses from SIT students who visit the SIT main campus frequently. The
main campus is neighboured by two supermarkets. This may have had an influence on the
selection of supermarket brand due to regular snacks and grocery shopping behaviour.

During the Literature Review it was revealed hedonic features such as atmosphere
inside the store including the design, layout, parking space influence the consumer behaviour.
However, this study did not evaluate these criteria.

Apart from supermarkets, dairies and convenience stores sell groceries as well. The
research omitted to evaluate participants purchases from these alternatives.

The study did not include a full range of demographic variables such as family size
income level or education level, which may have an influence on consumer behaviour.

Neither shopping cart size nor the amount spent in store were measured. These criteria
may also have a cross connection to supermarket choice.

6.6 Implications for future research

The definition used by the researcher for the research of Millennials age group 19-25
by year 2019 is not wide enough to capture a significant difference. Widening the age groups
and limiting the number of age categories would give a better understanding of Millennials and
their consumer behaviour as well as other age groups too. It appears that a narrower band does
not actually give a more definite reading in this type of research.

Consumer behaviour in supermarket grocery shopping is different to purchasing a

vehicle. The evaluation of the DMP model, a sequential decision-making process, is not
appropriate for grocery shopping. A moderated model would give better results to test
consumer behaviour, by understanding that the customer first evaluates price. Then
determining other decision-making criteria customers consider would follow. Further
requiring participants to rank choices of supermarket brands then selection criteria of each
supermarket brand, would give the opportunity to identify the connection between the

137
influence level and supermarket brand choice.

The TAM model could be used to test whether Millennials have a better acceptance
level than others provided all required information is requested in the research. This would give
the opportunity for a future study to evaluate consumer behaviour thorough TAM.

It was revealed during the research that age group 45 has unique consumer behaviour.
Their supermarket brand choice and selection criteria are quite different to other age groups.
As the NZ above 45 population is substantial, a study to compare the main differences between
above 45 and Millennials would give the opportunity to contrast the requirements in both age
groups.

6.7 Closing statement

The NZ supermarket industry predominantly controls grocery sales nationwide. The

economy and external factors are in favour of the industry. However, anticipating consumer
behaviour is challenging for the industry. Even though a significant difference in supermarket
brand choice was not identified, a difference in supermarket evaluation criteria was revealed.
Millennials do have some differences in behaviour now, so in five to ten years a significant
difference in consumer behaviour and purchasing patterns could be identified. Supermarkets
should constantly update their consumer requirements and ensure changes to strategies are
made accordingly.

138
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Appendices
Appendix A Sample Questionnaire on grocery shopping at supermarkets

Kia Ora, my name is Supun Malimage and I am a student at the Southern Institute of
Technology in Invercargill studying for Master of Applied Management. As part
of my studies I am conducting a research thesis on consumer behaviour and
supermarkets. I am looking for people who currently reside in Invercargill to
complete this questionnaire in order to help me to proceed with my research. It
will only take a few minutes of your time, and your answers will remain
confidential and anonymous. The results will be written up in a dissertation that
is assessed as a part of my programme of study. The data will be stored on a
password protected computer for a period of 5 years, which can be accessed by
self or by my supervisor after which it will be destroyed. If you do participate in
this questionnaire, then I thank you. . If you do complete this questionnaire, then
you are giving your consent for your data to be included in my project. This
project is being carried out under ethical approval from the Human Research
Ethics Committee. If you have any questions please contact me
2018010979@student.sit.ac.nz, 0211231176

1 You will be identified as?

Mark only one oval.

Male Female Other

2. What age bracket do you fit into?
bellow 19 / 19-25 / 25-36 / 36-45 / 45 above

3. How often do you purchase groceries from a supermarket?

Daily / Multiple days a week / Once a week / Every other week / Monthly

4. Do you patronize one supermarket brand more than any other?

Yes / No
5. If yes, which supermarket brand do you favour?
PAK’nSAVE / Countdown / New World / Other: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

6. Which following criteria/s affect you most when purchasing from this supermarket?
(Choose up to three options)?
Tick all that apply.
Price, Service, convenience, quality products sold, supermarket brand
name, range of healthy food options, availability of online ordering,
range of products, involvement of supermarket in supporting
community groups and events, local ownership of the supermarket
Please rate your agreement or disagreement with the following statements.
(1-strongly agreed 5-strongly disagreed)
7. I compare prices of the goods that I purchase before making most purchases.
Mark only one oval.

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 2 3 4 5

8. Word of mouth opinion (others feedback) on various supermarkets influence my

supermarket ‘ ‘ ‘’ selection criteria.

2 3 4
9 How do you get to know about your supermarket special deals /offers (club card
deals, Christmas,Easter specials,one day special price deals etc)? / ( You can
choose more than one answer)
Tick all that apply.
social media (Facebook,watsapp.twitter
etc), Email TV/Radio commercials,
Word of mouth, News paper & free
bulletin, Searching on the internet
Shopping in the Store, Not interested about these information

10. In your opinion what is the most effective mode of communication (from above
choices)
_ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _
Please rate the following statements on price promotions (specials/deals/offers) at
supermarkets
11. Deals,promotions (special prices and club card deals etc) affects my selection of
a supermarket brand
2 3 4 5
4/9
12. I shop more than usual when there's special deals and promotions at a particular
supermarket brand.
Mark only one oval.
2 3 4 5

13. Receiving too much promotional information can create a negative effect on decision
making.
Mark only one oval.
2 3 4 5
14. How many supermarket loyalty cards do you carry?
One / Two / three more than three

15. Loyalty card special deals influence your supermarket selection.

Mark only one oval.
1 2 3 4 5
16. Have you ever purchased groceries online?
Yes / No

17. If 'No' select the reasons

Tick all that apply.
Lack of knowledge using internet, Security concerns, Not reliable

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 Other:
If 'Yes' Please rate the following statements on online shopping
1 8. I am willing to fully change traditional shopping to online shopping.
Mark only one oval.
2 3 4 5

19. I am satisfied with the present online service offerings.

2 3 4 5
20. I am willing to pay extra for a better service.

2 3 4 5
21 . I feel it Is cost effective and time saving compared with shopping in store.

1 2 3 4 5
22. I am willing to change the supermarket brand based on online services offered.
Mark only one oval.
2 3 4 5
Please rate the following statements on social responsibility of supermarkets (fair trade,
support community).
23. It is important for supermarkets to have a proper waste management system in place.

1 2 3 4 5
24. It is important for supermarkets to support the community (charity support).

1 2 3 4 5
25. It is important for supermarkets to look after the well-being of staff.
2 3 4 5
26. It is important for supermarkets to be transparent with pricing and information.
Mark only one oval.
2 3 4 5
2 3 4 5
27. It is important for supermarkets to practice a strict food safety program
12 3 4 5
28. Availability of local (NZ produced) products affects the selection of the
supermarket brand

12345
29. Availability of organic products in supermarkets affects the selection of the
supermarket brand.
1 2 3 4 5
30. Availability of gluten free range affects the selection of the supermarket (separate
gluten free area).
2 3 4 5

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Appendix B – Interviews sample questions

1. Typically, how often do you shop at a supermarket/ Do you always go to the same
supermarket? If not, how do you describe your shopping pattern?

2. What factors influence your choice of supermarket?

3. Is either your choice of supermarket or frequency of shopping affected by

supermarket promotions and special offers? How do you find out about supermarket
promotions and special offers?

4. Do you have any supermarket loyalty cards? Does the possession of a CARD AFFECT
YOUR SHOPPING PATTERN?

5. Have you every purchased grocery online? And what do you think of this
option? Does this change your choice of supermarket?

6. Are you a person who require gluten free or vegan products in a supermarket? do you
prefer having a separate area for this or a wide variety would change your choice of
supermarket.

7. Do you agree with supermarket claims about their social and environmental practices?
Do these practices influence your decisions? If so, how?

8. Has the corona virus and Alert level 4 lockdown changed your view of supermarkets
in any way? Have you seen supermarkets responding differently? If so, how?

9. Do you think the lockdown will have any ongoing impacts for the supermarket you
most use and how frequently you shop or have any other impacts on your supermarket
behaviour?

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Appendix C – Interview participants information sheet

Consumer behaviour – The case of

Information Sheet for Participants

Thank you for showing an interest in this project. Please read this information sheet
carefully before deciding whether or not to participate. If you decide to participate I thank
you. If you decide not to take part there will be no disadvantage to you of any kind and
thank you for considering my request.
Introduction

I am Supun Malimage, a student of Master of applied management at Southern Institute of

Technology Invercargill and this will be the research project of mine to study about the
perception of millennial vs. other age groups on supermarkets. I am assisted by my
supervisor Dr Martin Perry.

What is the aim of the project?

This project aims to evaluate the perceptions of two different consumer groups differentiate
by age, Millennial (age 19-25 by 2019) and others about supermarkets in New Zealand
(Invercargill). There will be two separate discussions with participants representing both age
categories. This is to identify their view and perception on supermarkets. This is to
understand better how the perception, requirements and views differ in each age group
towards supermarkets.
What type of participants are being sought?
Looking at participants in between 19-25 by 2019 (young millennial) and other age group
who does visit supermarkets at least once in two weeks. Looking to recruit 6-8 participants
on each age category.

What will participants be asked to do?

Once you agree to take part in this project, you will be asked to attend a discussion session.
Your level of participation is entirely voluntary. You will not be asked personnel questions
or be singled out in any way. This discussion will take not more than one hour to ninety
minutes accompanied by tea and coffee. This will be an open discussion where you can
share your own view and perception. This will be moderated by a researcher.
Please be aware that you may decide not to take part in the project two weeks prior the
discussion date.

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Can participants change their minds and withdraw from the project?
You may withdraw from participating in the discussion two weeks prior the fixed date. A
notice will be accepted without any disadvantage to yourself of any kind.
What data or information will be collected and what use will be made of it?
Sessions will be recorded over a phone so researcher is able to describe sessions in detail.
This will not be played to people outside the research group .Data will be reviewed several
time to make sure the accuracy of the transcription following Discussion. Your name will not
be used in the final report and you will not be able to identify in any way. All information
will be kept confidential and the data will be used by the researcher only for the purposes of
this study.
What will happen to the results?

The results of the project will be written as a thesis and submitted, a copy of the report will
be available in the Southern Institute of Technology library (Invercargill, New Zealand). You
are most welcome to request a copy of the results of the project should you wish.

How will the data be stored?

The data collected will be securely stored in such a way that only the researcher and
supervisor will be able to gain access to. At the end of the project any personal information
will be destroyed immediately, except as required by SIT's research policy, any raw data on
which the results of the project depends will be retained in secure storage for five years,
after which it will be destroyed.
What if you have any questions about the project?
If you have any questions about the project, either now or in the future, please feel free to
contact:-
Researcher: Supun Malimage
Southern Institute of Technology
Telephone Number: 0211231176
Email:smalimage@gmail.com / 2018010979@student.sit.ac.nz

Supervisor: Dr Martin Perry

696 Peninsula Road
Kelvin Heights
Queenstown 9300
Telephone Number: 0212377467
Emain:martin.perry@sit.ac.nz

154
This research has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee at SIT.

If you have concerns about the ethical conduct of this research or the researchers, the
following procedure should occur.

Write to the following:

The Secretary of the Human Research Ethics Committee

Southern Institute of Technology
133 Tay St
INVERCARGILL 9840 NZ
Tel: 03 211 2699

All information is confidential and will be handled as soon as possible.

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Appendix D – Interview participants consent form

Southern Institute of Technology

Declaration of consent to be interviewed for

[Millennial perception of
supermarket – is consumer behaviour changing?]

I have had the scope and nature of the research fully explained to me. Any questions about
the research have been satisfactorily answered, and I understand that I may request further
information at any stage. I accept and note that:

1. My participation in this research is entirely voluntary.

2. I may withdraw from participation in the research two weeks prior discussion date
without explanation, disadvantage or disincentive.

3. The information given during the interview is being utilised solely for the purpose of
the specific research project and will not be disclosed to any other person or agency
without my express consent.

4. The interview will be recorded for later transcription.

5. This information may be incorporated into the research report but actual names or
other characteristics that may lead to identification of individuals or organisations
will not be disclosed.

6. I may at any time request to view any completed drafts or sections of the research
report to which I have contributed.

7. A copy of the completed research report will be made available to me, on request, at
the conclusion of the research.

DECLARATION

I have read and understood the information set out on this form, and give my informed
consent to be interviewed in accordance with the stated terms and conditions.

Name of Participant: Name of Researcher/Interviewer:

………………………………………………………........... Supun Malimage……………………

Signature ………………………………………………… Signature …………………………………………………

Date ……………………………………………………….. Date ………………………………………………………..

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Appendix E – Ethics Approval Letter

18 February 2020

Martin Perry Student – Supun Malimage

Southern Institute of Technology 2018010979@student.sit.ac.nz
martin.perry@sit.ac.nz

Dear Martin

HUMAN RESEARCH ETHICS APPLICATION

Millennial perception of supermarkets – is consumer behaviour changing?

Thank you for your response to the Ethic Committee’s request and I am pleased to confirm that the
amendments to your application are satisfactory.

Congratulations, you may now proceed with your research project.

Kind regards
Yours sincerely

Sally Bodkin-Allen
Human Research Ethics Committee Chair

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