IIMS Journal of Management Science

Vol. 11, No. 2, May-August, 2020, pp- 120-138 IndianJournals.com

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DOI: 10.5958/0976-173X.2020.00010.X

An Online Relationship Between Consumer Trends and Food

in its Various Avatars
Riya Michael and Richa K. Saxena

ABSTRACT
The latest advancements of the Internet has enhanced the growth of online food services by assisting people to
search, compare prices and conveniently access these services. Many a time, the preference for a food product
like noodles may not depend upon just the price, quality, quantity or even taste, but merely on its availability
‘online’. The food systems in case of countries having low and middle income are heterogeneous and fragmented.
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Moreover, numerous small time food retailers are prevailing in such countries. Therefore, safety and hygiene
considerations need to be catered to with utmost importance. Especially, unorganised processing of food,
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transfer plus packaging of this food among small online food retailers leads to the elevation of the risk of food
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adulteration or contamination and contributes to food poisoning outbreaks due to the extension of several
harmful bacteria. This article gives an insight into consumers’ preferences, perceptions, needs, their level of
awareness, their convenience and their willingness to purchase food online as well as offline. An online
questionnaire was collected by conducting a survey. It was found that in India, though people are not very price
conscious when it comes to food and are ready to try new food items, they are aware about conventional food
items. Indian consumers also give importance to fast food that comes with quick convenient delivery.
Keywords: Queue, Waiting time, Customer satisfaction, Self-decision quotient
JEL Classification: M31 Marketing
Biographical Note: Riya Michael, NMIMS, ASMSOC, Mumbai Campus. She can be reached at
riya.aurea@gmail.com
Richa K. Saxena currently working as Assistant Professor, NMIMS, ASMSOC, Mumbai Campus.

INTRODUCTION advantage of having piping hot Rajma Chawal or

Butter Chicken with Roti right at their doorstep with
When you think about food, what comes to your
the help of apps like Zomato, Swiggy, Uber Eats, etc.
mind? For some, it may be a means of survival, a
Coming to the senior population; online ordering, in
pastime, nostalgia, a buffet of cultures, a passion or
case of groceries, proves to be useful, as they do not
simply a lifestyle. Today’s generation is moving towards
need to step out of the comfort of their home or carry
a fast, super active lifestyle. As a result, online ordering
heavy grocery bags, as stores like Nature’s Basket, Big
comes into the picture. For the working population,
Basket and so on, assist them with the same.
online ordering comes in handy, as they do not need
to visit stores to purchase their required groceries. Also, In India, the demand for healthy food is rising.
after a tiresome day at work, they have the added According to a survey conducted by Nielson, Indians

120 Vol. 11, No. 2, May-August, 2020

 An Online Relationship Between Consumer Trends and Food in its Various Avatars
are moving away from unhealthy choices like greasy
food cooked in saturated fats or food with no
nutritional value to a wide assortment of healthy food
like cereals, oats, milk, food, drinks as fortified foods
with incremental nutrients gain. They are also willing
to spend more on healthy food (Malviya, 2016).
Online food delivery platforms are expanding their
menu to enable choice along with ensuring
convenience, allowing customers to order from a wide
array of restaurants with a single tap of their mobile
phone. By far, the traditional method is the most
common form of delivery. Depending on the
consumers’ mood or preference, the consumer can place
his/her order with the local pizza parlour or Chinese
restaurant (although many other kinds of restaurants,
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particularly in urban areas, now offer delivery) and wait
for the restaurant to bring the food to the door.
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However, as in so many other sectors, the rise of digital
technology is reshaping the market.
Why Order Food/Food Products Online?
Ordering food online, as a concept, has gained
popularity due to the convenience provided by the
food delivery companies in terms of attractive
discounts, option of alternate payment methods,
reward points, delivery of the food at the doorstep of
the customer and cashback offers. The operational cost
that is incurred by restaurants and cafes in maintaining
the infrastructure, call centre and other expenses, is
reduced to half when a restaurant takes online orders
and hence it a preferred medium for restaurants and
cafes as well.
Consumers accustomed to shopping online through
apps or websites, with maximum convenience and
transparency, increasingly expect the same experience
when it comes to ordering dinner. Speed of delivery is
the biggest variable in customer satisfaction, with an
average 60% of consumers across markets citing it as
a key factor. The optimal wait time is no more than
60 minutes (Carsten Hirschberg, 2016).
IIMS Journal of Management Science
Today, with the introduction of health-conscious
foods, people are incorporating diets like keto (where
you follow a high–fat, adequate–protein, low–
carbohydrate diet) or veganism (wherein, one abstains
from the consumption of animal products). People
have become aware of the foods which may
complement or be detrimental to their health and are
making conscious efforts to make others aware of the
same. Fortunately, many grocery stores, cafes and
restaurants have started taking these factors into
consideration.
Worldwide, the fast food industry has been affected
by the changes in consumer lifestyle patterns and
hence, the demand for healthier food options has
compelled such a sprouting industry to offer additional
alternatives to cater to these consumers. With healthier
food being the need of the hour, fast food outlets have
introduced healthier items to their menus.
Nonetheless, there appears to be a collective perception
among consumers that healthier food items are more
expensive (Glickman, 2019).
Need for Research on Consumer Trends and Food
Indians love eating and India is a gastronome’s delight.
The sheer variety of food available from different zones
and places remains unmatched anywhere in the world.
What’s more, you can now get most international
cuisines right here in India! Yes, India is open to
experimenting with all kinds of foods which include
fine dining, fast food and food cooked at home. It is
only in India that one gets the craving for food in
combinations that would give any proud chef a
‘Myocardial Infarction’—read ‘heart attack’, were he
or she to know the kind of food mixes that we like to
experiment with. Imagine someone craving for a
Japanese Sushi or Mutton Achari, to be eaten at the
same time with say a Bengali Prawn Bhapa or an Italian
Pasta (C.D. 2016).
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 Riya Michael and Richa K. Saxena
In order to understand the consumer trend with
reference to food, it is essential to conduct a research
on the same, considering various variables like
convenience, need, willingness, preferences, perceptions
and level of awareness.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
 To understand consumer preferences with respect
to food.
 To understand the level of awareness towards
healthy food worldwide.
 To analyse the factors considered by consumers
before purchasing food online.
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 To analyse whether these significant factors play
an important role with respect to the producers/
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suppliers.
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 To understand the role of online ordering through
a gastronome’s point of view.
 To analyse the interdependence of food, health and
technology.
 To analyse the marketing strategies implemented
by various cafes and restaurants.
 To study the modus operandi of the food industry.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Online ordering is one of the most important
attributes affecting consumer perceptions and hence,
has been discussed in 4 out of 15 research papers based
on consumer preferences (Anh Kim Dang, 2018;
Gupta, 2015; Chorneukar, 2015; Yu Jiang, 2019). The
recent development of the Internet has boosted the
extension of online food services by enabling people
to search, compare prices and conveniently access these
services. Many a time the preference for a food product
like noodles may not just depend upon the price,
quality, quantity or even taste, but merely on its
122
availability ‘online’. The food systems in case of
countries having low and middle income are
heterogeneous and fragmented. Moreover, numerous
small time food retailers are prevailing in such countries.
Therefore, safety and hygiene considerations need to
be catered to with utmost importance. Especially,
unorganised processing of food, transfer plus packaging
of this food among small online food retailers leads
to the elevation of the risk of food adulteration or
contamination and contributes to food poisoning
outbreaks due to the extension of several harmful
bacteria.
Practical advice along with guidance to customers, to
businesses selling food online as well as to local
authorities has been provided by The Food Standards
Agency in the United Kingdom, to strictly control
food sold over the Internet. In addition, due to the
report of foodborne illness incidents which stemmed
from the microbiological risk of online food in China,
food safety practices through online food vendors came
into the spotlight. The number of Vietnamese
customers purchasing products via the Internet or
online social networking sites has been rising rapidly
and is projected to grow by 22% in 2017 and 13.2%
by 2020. Ordering food through social media
platforms has been identified as a fast growing and
emerging trend in Vietnam, in which customers can
buy handmade processed food provided by Internet
users who are processing, advertising and selling their
products. The rapid expansion of Facebook and other
social media users in Vietnam has fuelled this upward
trend (Anh Kim Dang, 2018).
Owing to their altering lifestyles, online shopping is
mostly opted by the typical population. As per
researches conducted in the past, most consumers shop
online in order to save time while maintaining their
status (Gupta, 2015). Convenience is the principal
reason of electronic ordering (Chorneukar, 2015).
Online shopping proves to be a win–win situation
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 An Online Relationship Between Consumer Trends and Food in its Various Avatars
for all as it fulfils customers’ needs and saves money as
well as time of their buyers. Because of the increasing
technological revolution among the youth population,
customers between 18 and 25 years of age category,
comprising of 68.6% of the total consumers use online
shopping to fulfil their need and they are able to use
this technology for their well-being more than any
other age group category. On the contrary, people who
are not employed, study and shop online. This is
because they are updated with the current technology
(Gupta, 2015).
Another crucial element of electronic ordering is
accuracy. In a research conducted in Bangalore city, it
was found that younger customers are more likely to
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use online, mobile or text ordering. Greater emphasis
is placed on aspects like convenience and speed by the
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younger customers as compared to the older ones.
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Thus, operators should focus on giving their customers
higher levels of perceived control and convenience, since
these are associated with a higher intent to use online
ordering in the future. The research proved that nearly
90% of the respondents were aware of electronic food
ordering. The findings suggested that customers
between 31 and 35 years of age ordered more electronic
food, especially during the weekends and it was often
ordered as they did not want to cook. Customers who
evaluate service and quality based on interactions with
employees won’t want to use self-service ordering.
Similarly, customers who are uncomfortable with
technology may be reluctant to try an electronic self-
service site because they may be afraid of getting
tangled up in the technology. Perceived control and
convenience are keys to customer use of online ordering
which leads to higher satisfaction (Chorneukar, 2015).
There is a significant difference in the online and offline
edible oil market and therefore, they must be
considered as separate markets. Attributes such as
consumers’ preferences for the green food label, oil
variety, packaging and place of origin portray substantial
IIMS Journal of Management Science
variations. Across the two markets, the interactive
effects of variety and place of origin also vary.
Companies’ different promotion strategies are
displayed as the result for the discount claim attribute
is also different. The default oil sold online is more
expensive than offline. Results also reveal that price is
strongly related to oil variety and place of origin
attributes, while the interactive effects of certain
varieties and place of origin are also significant. Soybean
oil, which is a common staple oil in northern China,
is priced similarly as other varieties only, and compared
with them, olive oil and linseed oil have significantly
positive price premiums while corn oil, rapeseed oil
and sunflower seed oil are priced lower (Yu Jiang,
2019).
Consumers around the world are motivated to choose
diets that promote healthy outcomes due to the health
and disease problems related to food consumption.
Recent research shows that, while evaluating food
products, healthiness is a major quality dimension and
healthy eating has become a major topic in the public
discourse on food and drink. The attainment of
healthy food relies on a number of inter-relating
factors, including the level of concern about general
health and specific medical conditions along with the
belief that it is possible to influence one’s own health
and awareness and knowledge of foods/ingredients that
are supposed to be beneficial (Annunziata and Pascale,
2009). It is observed that there is noteworthy
dissimilarity in preferences for examined products
among consumers (Abdulaib, 2013).
Health motivation and perceived product benefits are
the most important psychological factors towards
functional food consumption. Additionally, (Gastón
Aresa, 2010) demonstrated a higher purchase intention
for functional yoghurts over regular ones, even though
they did not promote any health claim. For women,
functional food ingredients are significantly more
important than for men, this was clearly seen when,
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 Riya Michael and Richa K. Saxena
in the study, nearly twice as many health-conscious
consumers were women. Furthermore, those with
university education ‘attach the greatest importance
to naturalness, nutritional value, food safety, and
quality guarantee’, which is true for both quality-
oriented consumers and health-conscious consumers.
Apart from traditional consumers, all respondents were
willing to buy bread with superfood ingredients.
Quality-oriented consumers pay attention to regional,
traditional, fresh, natural, or organically produced
bread. They are open-minded towards superfood
ingredients, in contrast to traditional consumers.
Despite this, superfood ingredients are not the only
way they would like to make a good impression and
satisfy the expectations of others. For this group, breads
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with essential quality attributes, such as being low in
fat and high in protein with medium durability at any
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price, could be a suitable product. Interestingly, this
group would pay a higher price for higher quality, so
there is the possibility to promote quality label
strategies for bread to increase sales in this segment,
particularly for organic or GMO-free bread
(Meyerding, 2018).
The food origin is an important indicator of quality
and safety from consumers’ perspective. Along with
this, social norms, especially the wish to support the
local economy by the purchase decision, have
important influence on the preferences (Meike
Henseleit, 2007). Current research reveals that Italian
consumers are not always willing to forego the pleasure
of what they consume and continue to give taste a
predominant role in their food choices, despite being
well aware of the links between food habits, healthiness
of food and personal health. As confirmed by other
studies that also pointed to the primary role of taste as
a factor that directs consumers’ food choice in general,
the respondents express a negative opinion towards
the current level of information available on the
market and complain about a certain difficulty in
124
distinguishing between organic and functional and
conventional foods (Annunziata and Pascale, 2009).
Consumers also give significance to the origin of the
product. According to some studies, consumers prefer
locally produced goods. Besides preferring lower prices,
they give high preferences for locally produced apples,
with low pesticide residues, higher vitamin C levels.
For milk and beef products, it was observed that
consumers preferred organic products with higher
contents of omega-3 fatty acids, those produced in
the region, with lower antibiotic residues, and sold at
lower prices. For specific organic food products, and
to some extent for locally produced food, there are
some consumer groups who are willing to pay high
price premiums. There is a need to adapt
communication strategies that integrate product-
relevant information due to the gender differences
between the products. Product-specific information
about organic food attributes may offer a second way
of differentiating these products from conventional
ones and therefore improving the perceived utility of
organic food products (Abdulaib, 2013).
There is no difference of perception in residential and
non-residential consumers and alternate hypothesis that
there is significant difference in perception for fast food
in residential and non-residential consumer is not
accepted. So as per the results, both the groups
demonstrated the same attitude towards fast food
outlets and there was no difference in opinion.
Respondents above age 45 years have very less tendency
of visiting fast food outlets as compared to other age
groups so we can say that fast food consuming habit
is inversely proportional to age. As a result, as age
increases, one’s appetite for fast food diminishes and
at a younger age, fast food consumption is greater
(Bhuvanesh Kumar Sharma, 2015). According to a
research conducted, 57.6% of the respondents had a
negative view regarding the price and value of the
healthier food options available. This proves to be a
cause of concern as there turned out to be a relatively
Vol. 11, No. 2, May-August, 2020
 An Online Relationship Between Consumer Trends and Food in its Various Avatars
low level of satisfaction. Within this dimension, the
actual price of the healthier food options seemed to
have the least satisfaction among the respondents. It is
alarming to find such a high dissatisfaction rating
among respondents in this area. Fast food outlets may
want to consider evaluating their pricing strategy,
which is related to the value perception of customers;
in order to keep and increase their customer base
(Gopaul, 2015).
Fast food outlets should review current portion sizes,
offer healthy value-bundled meals, convey a better
value-for-money message and deliver on what they
promise. Healthier, tasty food is being offered by the
magic bullet at a price that makes both customers and
fast food outlets happy (Gopaul, 2015). In order to
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establish customer expectations and perceptions in
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terms of value received for the price paid for healthier
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fast food options, further research could be conducted
and this in turn could greatly improve the satisfaction
ratings (Gopaul, 2015).
Findings contribute to the hypothesis that the purchase
and repurchase behaviour of customers in a market
are not only reflected by culture, but also materialist
thoughts (i.e. happiness, success and centrality) that
influence the culture in developing such behaviour
(Afzal, 2019). Food which is grown in the surrounding
region and which is usually unprocessed is known as
regional food (Henseleit, 2009). Regional co-
operations have been established to promote the sale
of regional food in Germany, as well as in many other
European countries. Knowing the impact factors can
help to promote locally grown products more
successfully and therefore, for those co-operations, it
is important to understand the determinants of
preferences for regional food. The preference towards
regional food is determined with the help of cognitive
and normative processes (Meike Henseleit, 2007).
China is rapidly growing economically, and this
economic development is changing people’s beliefs and
IIMS Journal of Management Science
values. For the consumer retail market, these cultural
aspects were also found to be important. The results
show that people are adopting modernised values of
consuming imported products in supermarkets,
thereby altering their traditional values. In order to
adopt any cross-cultural change, consumers first tend
to change their inner inhibits. Due to the globalisation
effect in local culture, materialism or greediness,
moderates the adaptation of foreign processed food
products. This decision-making process is also reflected
by age, sex, education and the income level of
consumers (Afzal, 2019).
In recent years, there has been significant evolution in
the landscape of the baby food industry which reflects
consumer concerns in other foods. Demand for organic
baby food continues to grow rapidly as well as for
non-genetically modified (non-GM) labelled baby
food. Among parents, the pouch which is the new
packaging innovation has been very popular.
Determination of the consumers’ willingness to pay
(WTP) for organic and other nutrition attributes has
been covered by previous studies on baby food (Fang,
2015).
In 2013, there were about 24.0 million children under
the age of five in the United States, and these babies
and the toddlers consumed $6.6 billion of baby food.
The baby food consumption in the United States has
increased 4% every year since 2008 and is expected to
continue to increase in upcoming years. More
consumers have become interested in organic baby
food, baby food with non-GM labels and baby food
in the new pouch packaging also attract more
consumers. A descriptive analysis of the market for
baby food using Nielsen Homescan data from 2008
to 2011 shows that both organic and non-GM baby
food were priced much higher than conventional baby
food. Specifically, the price of per ounce of
conventional baby food was lower than 15 cents, but
the price of per ounce organic and non-GM baby food
was higher than 20 cents. Non-GM baby food became
125
 Riya Michael and Richa K. Saxena
more expensive than organic baby food since 2010.
This shows that consumers might be increasingly
interested in non-GM baby food. There is a greater
likelihood of consumers purchasing organic and non-
GM baby food in case of consumers who spend more
on fresh produce and less on protein products (Fang,
2015).
The perceived consumer benefits and risks associated
with nanotechnology applied to food production and
food products is likely to be an important determinant
of consumer responses as per consumer studies, and
those involving expert assessment of consumer
perceptions. If the perceived benefits in some way
outweigh the perceived risks and associated consumer
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concerns, agri-food nanotechnology is likely to be
accepted by consumers. When used in food packaging
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and processing, nanotechnology was deemed more
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acceptable rather than as an integral part of food
products themselves. In addition to this, if
nanotechnology results in cheaper, safer, consumer
products, that is, a tangible and desirable consumer
benefit is delivered as a consequence of its application
then agri-food may be more acceptable (Emma and
Giles, 2015).
In this era of globalisation, by creating a brand image
in the minds of customers, the market is full of
FMCG companies trying to sell their product. Since,
fast moving consumer goods are products which are
purchased frequently and are necessary for the
customers, today, FMCG sector comprises of a large
part of consumer’s income. As per their convenience,
consumers visit the nearest retail store to purchase
FMCG products as and when the need arises. This
gives an excellent opportunity to the retailer to attract
the customers by using various marketing strategies in
such a way, so as to persuade the consumer to buy
four to five products as against the single product that
he/she originally intended to purchase (Nema, 2017).
The store promotion strategies are most successful in
126
case of respondents belonging to the low-income
group and the unmarried ones. Also, people belonging
to different age groups think in a different manner
and their response towards buying FMCG products
vary with respect to the different store promotion
strategies used by marketer. Along these lines, it is the
duty of the marketer to develop and execute different
store promotion strategies as per all the different age
groups. While purchasing FMCG products, students
are more responsive towards store promotional tools
as compared to the groups belonging to the other
categories (Joshi, 2016).
Traceability, followed by organic, graded,
environmentally friendly and, finally, fair-trade
certification were the most important coffee
certification attributes. The respondents’ WTP
attribute ranked from highest to lowest were the
previously mentioned attributes in the same order. This
study used the RPL analysis to show that respondents
had a positive preference these five attributes. In the
case of the certified organic labels, respondents with
higher education had a higher WTP. For coffee bearing
the graded certification label, older and more educated
respondents with higher incomes had a higher WTP.
From previous research, the findings confirm several
observations. With less value being placed on fair trade,
consumers placed higher value on coffee certification
attributes like traceability and organic certifications
(Chun-Chu Liu, 2019).
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A questionnaire was developed in order to collect
primary data from consumers in and around Mumbai,
India. The online questionnaire collected the details
of the respondents such as age, gender, family size and
family income. The remaining questions were asked
with respect to their views on convenience, needs,
awareness, preferences, willingness and perception
while purchasing food/food products in Table 1 to 3.
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 An Online Relationship Between Consumer Trends and Food in its Various Avatars

Table 1: Factor Model

Factor Construct Reference
Convenience Search for products (Rajiv Vyas, 2016)
Compare prices (Rajiv Vyas, 2016)
Access (Rajiv Vyas, 2016)
Availability online (Rajiv Vyas, 2016)
Ease of use (Gupta, 2015)
Accuracy (Chorneukar, 2015)
Save time (Gupta, 2015)
Self-service ordering (Chorneukar, 2015)
Speed (Chorneukar, 2015)
Delivery (Chorneukar, 2015)
Need Interactions with employees (Chorneukar, 2015)
Suitable portion sizes (Afzal, 2019)
Save money (Gupta, 2015)
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Maintain status (Gupta, 2015)

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Variety (Yu Jiang, 2019)

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Social norms (Meike Henseleit, 2007)

Known brand (Meike Henseleit, 2007)
Awareness Aware of online ordering (Chorneukar, 2015)
Food safety awareness (Anh Kim Dang, 2018)
Technological revolution (Gupta, 2015)
Awareness about beneficial food products (Annunziata and Pascale, 2009)
Organic food (Abdulaib, 2013)
Conventional food (Abdulaib, 2013)
Functional food (Abdulaib, 2013)
Place of origin (Yu Jiang, 2019)
Attributes of the product (low in fat/high in protein) (Meyerding, 2018)
Preferences Discounted products (Yu Jiang, 2019)
Online purchase through social networking sites (Anh Kim Dang, 2018)
Fast food (Bhuvanesh Kumar Sharma, 2015)
Healthy fast food (Bhuvanesh Kumar Sharma, 2015)
Health motivation (Meyerding, 2018)
Naturalness (Meyerding, 2018)
Nutritional value (Meyerding, 2018)
Quality guarantee (Meyerding, 2018)
Durability (Meyerding, 2018)
Fair trade certification (Chun-Chu Liu, 2019)
Organic certification (Chun-Chu Liu, 2019)

IIMS Journal of Management Science 127

 Riya Michael and Richa K. Saxena

Table 1 contd....
Factor Construct Reference
Willingness Higher price for premium food (Abdulaib, 2013)
Recommend the product to others (Abdulaib, 2013)
Online purchases in the future (Abdulaib, 2013)
Try new food products (Abdulaib, 2013)
Perception Healthy food—expensive (Glickman, 2019)
Cultural aspects (Afzal, 2019)
Perceived product benefits (Meyerding, 2018)
Perceived control (Chorneukar, 2015)
For convenience, the variables were abbreviated as follows:

Table 2: Abbreviation
Age AGE
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Gender GENDER
Family size SIZE
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Income of the family (R) INCOME

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I prefer ordering food online because [It is convenient to search for products] CON1
I prefer ordering food online because [It is convenient to compare prices] CON2
I prefer ordering food online because [I can easily access many stores online] CON3
I prefer ordering food online because [Many options are available online] CON4
I prefer ordering food online because [I find it easy to order food products online] CON5
I prefer ordering food online because [Online ordering is accurate] CON6
I prefer ordering food online because [It saves time] CON7
I prefer ordering food online because [I find self-service ordering convenient] CON8
I prefer ordering food online because [It is faster than offline ordering] CON9
I prefer ordering food online because [The delivery is very good] CON10
I prefer ordering food online because [Overall, I find ordering food online very convenient] CON11
While purchasing food [I need to interact with the employees of the store] NEED1
While purchasing food [Suitable portion sizes help me choose particular foods] NEED2
While purchasing food [I need to spend my money sparingly and try to save money] NEED3
While purchasing food [I try to maintain my status] NEED4
While purchasing food [I look for variety] NEED5
While purchasing food [I take the social norms into account] NEED6
While purchasing food [I purchase only from known brands] NEED7
While purchasing food [Overall my needs must be met] NEED8
While purchasing food I am aware of [Online ordering] AWARE1
While purchasing food I am aware of [Food safety (measures)] AWARE2
While purchasing food I am aware of [Technological revolution] AWARE3

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 An Online Relationship Between Consumer Trends and Food in its Various Avatars

Table 2 contd...
While purchasing food I am aware of [Food products that are beneficial for my health and well-being] AWARE4
While purchasing food I am aware of [What organic food is] AWARE5
While purchasing food I am aware of [What conventional food is] AWARE6
While purchasing food I am aware of [What functional food is] AWARE7
While purchasing food I am aware of [The origin of the food] AWARE8
While purchasing food I am aware of [Attributes of the product (low in fat/high in protein)] AWARE9
While purchasing food I am aware of [Overall, I am aware of every component of my food] AWARE10
While purchasing food products I prefer [Discounted products] PRE1
While purchasing food products I prefer [Online purchase through social networking sites] PRE2
While purchasing food products I prefer [Fast food] PRE3
While purchasing food products I prefer [Healthy fast food] PRE4
While purchasing food products I prefer [Food which promotes health] PRE5
While purchasing food products I prefer [My food to be natural] PRE6
While purchasing food products I prefer [My food to have nutritional values] PRE7
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While purchasing food products I prefer [My food to have quality guarantee] PRE8
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While purchasing food products I prefer [My food to be durable] PRE9

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While purchasing food products I prefer [My food to have fair trade certification] PRE10
While purchasing food products I prefer [My food to have organic certification] PRE11
While purchasing food products I prefer [Overall, my preferences are taken care of ] PRE12
While purchasing food, I am willing to [Pay a higher price for premium food] WILL1
While purchasing food, I am willing to [Refer the purchased food products to my friends/relatives] WILL2
While purchasing food, I am willing to [Purchase food online in the future] WILL3
While purchasing food, I am willing to [Try food products which are not on my shopping list] WILL4
While purchasing food, I am willing to [Overall, I am willing to try new food] WILL5
My perception about food is [Healthy food is expensive] PER1
My perception about food is [Food has its own cultural aspects] PER2
My perception about food is [I weigh the perceived product benefits and cost] PER3
My perception about food is [Overall my perceptions of the food purchased meet up with PER4
the delivered product]

The variables further analysed under each of these
factors are as follows:
Analysis
Primary data were collected from 190 consumers in
and around Mumbai, India. All the responses were
satisfactory and could be considered for the purpose
of the study.
Reliability of the Questionnaire
It is essential to check reliability of the questionnaires
filled by the respondents. For this purpose, statistical
techniques were used. Reliability of the questionnaires
was ascertained on Cronbach’s alpha.
‘Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient normally
ranges between 0 and 1. However, there is no lower

IIMS Journal of Management Science 129

 Riya Michael and Richa K. Saxena

Table 3: Case Processing Summary Table 5: Descriptive Statistics

N % Mean Std. deviation N
Cases Valid 190 100.0 WILL3 3.99 1.386 190
Excluded 0 0.0 AGE 2.32 0.929 190
Total 190 100.0 GENDER 1.55 0.499 190
SIZE 2.13 0.876 190
limit to the coefficient. The closer Cronbach’s alpha INCOME 3.12 1.400 190
coefficient is to 1.0 the greater is the internal CON1 3.53 1.642 190
consistency of the items in the scale.’ CON2 3.61 1.603 190
CON3 3.68 1.602 190
Based upon the formula: = rk / [1 + (k – 1) r]
CON4 3.75 1.560 190
where, k is the number of items considered and r is CON5 3.59 1.629 190
the mean of the inter-item correlations. The size of CON6 3.53 1.619 190
alpha is determined by both the number of items in CON7 3.59 1.604 190
the scale and the mean inter-item correlations in Table
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CON8 3.62 1.608 190

4 and 5. CON9 3.60 1.623 190
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(Chandrani Sinha Ray, 2007) provide the following CON10 3.55 1.585 190
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rules of thumb: ‘>0.9 – Excellent, >0.8 – Good, > CON11 3.67 1.566 190
0.7 – Acceptable, >0.6 – Questionable, >0.5 – Poor, NEED1 2.77 1.673 190
and <0.5 – Unacceptable’. NEED2 3.49 1.609 190
NEED3 3.22 1.618 190
Table 4: Reliability Statistics NEED4 3.99 1.357 190
Cronbach’s alpha No. of items NEED5 4.15 1.276 190
0.962 54 NEED6 2.68 1.714 190
NEED7 3.78 1.534 190
Therefore, Cronbach’s alpha for the study is 0.962 NEED8 4.57 0.812 190
which proves that the questionnaire is useful for the AWARE1 4.03 1.387 190
purpose of this study. AWARE2 3.59 1.414 190
It should be noted that, while a high value for AWARE3 2.86 1.599 190
Cronbach’s alpha indicates good internal consistency AWARE4 3.75 1.383 190
of the items in the scale, it does not mean that the AWARE5 3.61 1.471 190
scale is unidimensional. AWARE6 3.09 1.566 190
AWARE7 2.69 1.631 190
‘The arithmetic mean, also called the mathematical
AWARE8 3.51 1.465 190
expectation or average, is the central value of a discrete
set of numbers: specifically, the sum of the values AWARE9 3.58 1.495 190

divided by the number of values’. AWARE10 4.11 1.210 190

PRE1 3.62 1.503 190
According to the analysis, NEED6, which is the PRE2 2.95 1.734 190
consideration of social norms is 2.68 which is very

130 Vol. 11, No. 2, May-August, 2020

 An Online Relationship Between Consumer Trends and Food in its Various Avatars

Table 5 cont.... Coming to the higher variables, as for PRE6, a larger

Mean Std. deviation N proportion of people prefer their food to be natural.
PRE3 3.25 1.414 190 In the case of NEED4, majority of people need the
PRE4 3.43 1.223 190 food/food products they buy to define their status in
PRE5 3.99 1.049 190 the society. For PRE5, consumers are motivated to
PRE6 3.98 1.066 190 purchase foods which promote health and well-being.
PRE7 4.01 1.091 190 The results for WILL3 show that many consumers
PRE8 4.12 1.039 190 are willing to purchase food online, indicating that
PRE9 4.02 1.129 190 they find online purchasing more convenient than
PRE10 3.29 1.582 190 offline. According to the mean score of PRE7, it is
PRE11 3.23 1.623 190
observed that larger number of consumers prefers their
food products to have nutritional values and give lesser
PRE12 4.39 .957 190
importance to the naturalness of the products.
WILL1 3.61 1.479 190
Consumers prefer their food products to be durable
WILL2 4.31 1.174 190
(PRE9), which indicates that may not consume the
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WILL4 4.07 1.433 190

food product immediately and perhaps, stock it for
WILL5 4.14 1.366 190
future use (emergencies). Majority of the consumers
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PER1 3.62 1.354 190

PER2 4.33 1.118 190
PER3 4.36 1.058 190
PER4 4.47 0.958 190
low. This indicates that the majority of the people
does not take the social norms into account while
purchasing food. AWARE7 = 2.69. This means that
only a small portion of consumers are aware of what
functional foods are. NEED1 = 2.77. This indicates
that most of the consumers do not find the need to
interact with the employees, which in turn indicates
that this portion of consumers can shop for food
products without any assistance and are self-efficient.
AWARE3= 2.86. The results show that not many
consumers are aware of the technological revolutions
taking place. This means that only a small portion of
consumers are tech-savvy and can keep up with the
technological waves. PRE2 stands for preference for
online purchasing through networking sites, which is
only 2.95. This shows that the efforts of firms to
promote their products through social networking sites
are not much responsive.
are aware of online ordering (AWARE1), resulting in
a greater demand for purchase of food products online.
According to the results for WILL4, more and more
consumers are willing to try food products which are
not on their shopping list, which means they are open
to variety (NEED5) and welcome the efforts of clerks
at grocery stores and waiters at restaurants to serve
them with a different product. As per AWARE10, a
large proportion of people are aware of the components
present their food products, which means that people
are reading up on the benefits of various ingredients
and are more involved in the buying decision-making
process of food/food products. The results for PRE8
show that consumers prefer buying food products
which are guaranteed to be of superior quality. A high
mean score of WILL2 indicates that consumers are
willing to refer the products tried by them to their
friends and relatives, which mean that marketers can
depend upon customers to promote their products,
provided they are satisfied with the same. For PER2,
the results show that consumers perceive every food
product to have its own cultural aspect which indicates
that, there is a possibility that consumers may associate

IIMS Journal of Management Science 131

 Riya Michael and Richa K. Saxena
a negative aspect of the product with the culture and
not with the producer of that food product. As for
PER3, the results show that most consumers weigh
the perceived benefits and costs of the food product
before purchasing it and critically evaluate both these
aspects. They finally purchase the product based on
calculating the risks ascertained with it. According to
the results of PRE12, majority of the consumers feel
that most of their preferences are taken care of by the
firms and their perceptions of the food purchased,
meet up with the delivered product (PER4). NEED8
has the highest mean score which indicates that for
most of the consumers, their needs for the food
products like suitable portion—sizes, variety, etc. must
be met.
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‘In statistics, the standard deviation (SD, also
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represented by the Greek letter sigma ó or the Latin
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letter s) is a measure that is used to quantify the
amount of variation or dispersion of a set of data values.
A low SD score indicates homogeneity and a high SD
score indicates heterogeneity’.
The SD score for NEED8 is low. This means that
consumers are homogenous in the sense that their
needs must be met. A low PRE12 score indicates that
people are of the same view that, overall their
preferences are taken care of. Similarly, consumers have
a homogenous opinion that their perceptions of the
purchased food, meet up with the delivered product
(PER4).
There is heterogeneity in CON3, which means that
not all consumers are able to access many stores online.
This may happen either due to lack of computer
knowledge or due to unavailability of the product
across various stores. This may lead to a fewer options
while comparing prices (CON2, CON5). In the case
of CON7, the SD score is high as online ordering
may not necessarily prove to be time-saving for all
consumers. It can become a tedious process due to
several reasons, some of which may be poor Internet
132
connection, poor computer knowledge. This can also
cause consumers to have varied opinions when it comes
to self-service online ordering (CON8). The SD scores
for NEED2 and NEED3 are high. This is because some
people may be able to afford expensive food products
which may not necessarily tame their hunger. On the
contrary, some consumers may be conscious spenders
and may opt for particular restaurants due to the
presence of suitable portion sizes which in turn, will
help them spend economically. According to the SD
score of CON9, some consumers are of the opinion
that online ordering is faster than offline and others
and vice versa. Online ordering may be faster than
offline as consumers may save the time spent to travel
to the store/restaurant as the product is delivered
directly to the consumers’ door. However, this may
not hold true if there is an error while placing the order
or due to scarcity of delivery persons. There is
heterogeneity in the awareness towards functional foods
(AWARE7). This may occur due to only some
consumers reading up on the types of foods beneficial
for their health or due to the availability of functional
foods in fewer areas. All consumers may not agree that
it is convenient to search for food products online
(CON1). This is because certain stores may not keep
the products required by the consumer or it is not be
available at that point. It is also possible that, when a
consumer searches for a particular food product, it may
not be called the same by the store and hence, the
consumer may not get what he/she wants.
‘Correlation is any statistical association, though it
commonly refers to the degree to which a pair of
variables is linearly related. 1 is total positive linear
correlation, 0 is no linear correlation, and –1 is total
negative linear correlation’.
The coloured region shows that the correlation
between the convenience variables is overlapping. There
is the highest correlation between CON10 and
CON6. This indicates that, for online ordering of food
Vol. 11, No. 2, May-August, 2020
 An Online Relationship Between Consumer Trends and Food in its Various Avatars

Table 6: Coefficients
Model Unstandardised Standardised t Sig.
coefficients coefficients
B Std. error Beta
1 (Constant) 1.069 0.203 5.258 0.000
WILL4 0.719 0.047 0.744 15.244 0.000
2 (Constant) 0.808 0.189 4.270 0.000
WILL4 0.513 0.054 0.531 9.578 0.000
CON10 0.310 0.048 0.355 6.400 0.000
3 (Constant) 0.206 0.266 0.775 0.439
WILL4 0.472 0.054 0.488 8.742 0.000
CON10 0.285 0.048 0.326 5.933 0.000
PER3 0.197 0.063 0.151 3.146 0.002
4 (Constant) 0.292 0.263 1.109 0.269
WILL4 0.494 0.054 0.511 9.212 0.000
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CON10 0.339 0.051 0.387 6.632 0.000

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PER3 0.201 0.062 0.154 3.266 0.001

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AWARE6 –0.125 0.045 –0.141 –2.754 0.006

5 (Constant) 0.606 0.295 2.055 0.041
WILL4 0.473 0.054 0.489 8.763 0.000
CON10 0.306 0.052 0.350 5.841 0.000
PER3 0.254 0.065 0.194 3.892 0.000
AWARE6 –0.116 0.045 –0.131 –2.559 0.011
AGE –0.160 0.070 –0.107 –2.267 0.025
6 (Constant) 0.543 0.293 1.856 0.065
WILL4 0.424 0.057 0.438 7.390 0.000
CON10 0.306 0.052 0.350 5.907 0.000
PER3 0.245 0.065 0.187 3.791 0.000
AWARE6 –0.141 0.046 –0.159 –3.063 0.003
AGE –0.170 0.070 –0.114 –2.434 0.016
WILL1 0.112 0.048 0.119 2.313 0.022
a. Dependent Variable: WILL3
The regression equation is given by, Y = A + BX
where, Y is the dependent variable and X is the independent variable.
WILL3 = 1.069 + 0.719WILL4
WILL3 = 0.808 + 0.513WILL4 + 0.310CON10
WILL3 = 0.206 + 0.472WILL4 + 0.285CON10 + 0.197PER3
WILL3 = 0.292 + 0.494WILL4 + 0.339CON10 + 0.201PER3 –0.125AWARE6
WILL3 = 0.606 + 0.473WILL4 + 0.306CON10 + 0.254PER3 –0.116AWARE6 –0.160AGE
WILL3 = 0.543 + 0.424WILL4 + 0.306CON10 + 0.245PER3 –0.141AWARE6 –0.170AGE + 0.112WILL1

IIMS Journal of Management Science 133

 Riya Michael and Richa K. Saxena

products to be convenient for consumers, the Table 7: Significance

information about the food products displayed online Model Variables Significance
must be accurate and the delivery of the purchased 1 CON1 0.000
products must be punctual. The next highest CON2 0.000
correlation is between CON8 and CON6. This CON3 0.000
means that, if consumers are self-efficient while CON4 0.000
ordering online, only then will they find online
CON5 0.000
ordering to be accurate. In the case of CON11 and
CON6 0.000
CON3, online ordering can prove to be more
convenient to consumers if they are able to access a CON7 0.000
wide variety of stores online. CON8 0.000
CON9 0.000
‘Regression analysis is a set of statistical processes for
CON10 0.000
estimating the relationships among variables. It includes
many techniques for modelling and analysing several CON11 0.000
variables, when the focus is on the relationship between NEED1 0.003
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a dependent variable and one or more independent AWARE1 0.000

variables’. Here, the willingness to purchase food
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PRE2 0.000
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online, that is, WILL3 is taken as dependent variable. PRE4 0.001

SPSS analysis for regression gave the following WILL2 0.003
coefficients in Table 6. PER1 0.005
‘Statistical hypothesis testing is used to determine PER2 0.001
whether the result of a data set is statistically significant. PER3 0.000
This test provides a p-value, representing the 2 AWARE1 0.003
probability that random chance could explain the PER2 0.004
result. In general, a p-value of 5% or lower is
PER3 0.002
considered to be statistically significant’ in Table 7.
Therefore, from the above Table 7, the statistically in the criterion variable which is accounted for by our
significant variables are CON10 (Convenience of model’. In this study, it is the proportion of the
delivery), AWARE1 (Awareness of online ordering), variance for WILL3 by our set of Predictor variables.
PRE2 (Preference for online purchase through social
In essence, this is a measure of how good a prediction
networking sites) and PER3 (Perception of product
of the criterion variable we can make by knowing the
benefits and cost).
predictor variables. However, R2 tends to be somewhat
‘R is a measure of the correlation between the observed over-estimate the success of the model when applied
value and the predicted value of the Criterion Variable’. to the real world, so an Adjusted R2 value is calculated
In this study, it is the correlation between WILL3 which takes into account the number of variables in
(Willingness to purchase food online in the future) the model and the number of observations
and the predicted values. (participants) our model is based on. This Adjusted
‘R Square (R2) is the square of this measure of R2 value gives the most useful measure of the success
correlation and indicates the proportion of the variance of our model.

134 Vol. 11, No. 2, May-August, 2020

 An Online Relationship Between Consumer Trends and Food in its Various Avatars

Table 8: Model Summary

Model R R2 Adjusted Std. error Change statistics
2 2
R of the R F df1 df2 Sig. F
estimate change change change
1 0.7434 (a) 0.553 0.550 0.929 0.553 232.391 1 188 0.000
2 0.796 (b) 0.633 0.629 0.844 0.080 40.955 1 187 0.000
3 0.807 (c) 0.652 0.646 0.824 0.019 9.895 1 186 0.002
4 0.816 (d) 0.665 0.658 0.810 0.014 7.583 1 185 0.006
5 0.821 (e) 0.674 0.666 0.801 0.009 5.139 1 184 0.025
6 0.827 (f ) 0.684 0.673 0.792 0.009 5.351 1 183 0.022
a.Predictors: (Constant), WILL4
b.Predictors: (Constant), WILL4, CON10
c.Predictors: (Constant), WILL4, CON10, PER3
d.Predictors: (Constant), WILL4, CON10, PER3, AWARE6
e.Predictors: (Constant), WILL4, CON10, PER3, AWARE6, AGE
f.Predictors: (Constant), WILL4, CON10, PER3, AWARE6, AGE, WILL1
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The Adjusted R 2 Values shows the moderate The means are not equal, that is, WILL4 (Mean =
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significance of the Predictor Factors towards WILL3.
‘ANOVA uses an F test to compare the means of the
groups. An F test in ANOVA can only tell if there is a
relationship between two variables—it can’t tell what
that relationship is. Mathematically, this means it can
only tell if one of the means of the groups is different
from another one. It cannot tell which mean is
different’.
The hypotheses we test with an F-test in ANOVA
are:
Null: There is no relationship between WILL3 and
the Predictor Variables.
The means are equal, that is, WILL4 (Mean = 4.07) =
CON10 (Mean = 3.55) = PER3 (Mean = 4.36) =
AWARE6 (Mean = 3.09) = AGE (Mean = 2.32) =
WILL1 (Mean= 3.61).
F = 0.
Research: There is a relationship between the WILL3
and the Predictor Variables–WILL4, CON10, PER3,
AWARE6, AGE, and WILL1.
4.07)  CON10 (Mean = 3.55)  PER3 (Mean =
4.36)  AWARE6 (Mean = 3.09)  AGE (Mean =
2.32)  WILL1 (Mean= 3.61).
F  0.
As seen in the Table 8 and 9 all the p values are lower
than alpha. Hence the null hypothesis is rejected.
Hence, there is a relationship and based on respected
means, the order of relationship is decided. The order
of impact out of these independent variables is:
1. PER3 (Mean = 4.36)
2. WILL4 (Mean = 4.07)
3. WILL1 (Mean= 3.61)
4. CON10 (Mean = 3.55)
5. AWARE6 (Mean = 3.09)
6. AGE (Mean = 2.32)
CONCLUSION
The significant variables are CON10 (Convenience
of delivery), AWARE1 (Awareness of online ordering),
PRE2 (Preference for online purchase through social

IIMS Journal of Management Science 135

 Riya Michael and Richa K. Saxena

Table 9: ANOVA
Model Sum of squares df Mean square F Sig.
1 Regression 200.662 1 200.662 232.391 0.000
Residual 162.332 188 0.863
Total 362.995 189
2 Regression 229.828 2 114.914 161.368 0.000
Residual 133.167 187 0.712
Total 362.995 189
3 Regression 236.554 3 78.851 115.994 0.000
Residual 126.441 186 0.680
Total 362.995 189
4 Regression 241.532 4 60.383 91.970 0.000
Residual 121.462 185 0.657
Total 362.995 189
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5 Regression 244.832 5 48.966 76.249 0.000

Residual 118.162 184 0.642
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Total 362.995 189

6 Regression 248.189 6 41.365 65.936 0.000
Residual 114.806 183 .627
Total 362.995 189
a. Predictors: (Constant), WILL4
b. Predictors: (Constant), WILL4, CON10
c. Predictors: (Constant), WILL4, CON10, PER3
d. Predictors: (Constant), WILL4, CON10, PER3, AWARE6
e. Predictors: (Constant), WILL4, CON10, PER3, AWARE6, AGE
f. Predictors: (Constant), WILL4, CON10, PER3, AWARE6, AGE, WILL1
g. Dependent Variable: WILL3

networking sites) and PER3 (Perception of product
benefits and cost).
For online ordering of food products to be convenient
for consumers, the information about the food
products displayed online must be accurate and the
delivery of the purchased products must be punctual.
If consumers are self-efficient while ordering online,
only then will they find online ordering to be accurate.
Online ordering can prove to be more convenient to
consumers if they are able to access a wide variety of
stores online. Consumers are homogenous in the sense
that their needs must be met. People are of the same
view that, overall their preferences are taken care of.
Similarly, consumers feel that their perceptions of the
purchased food, meet up with the delivered product.
Not all consumers are able to access many stores online.
This may happen either due to lack of computer
knowledge or due to unavailability of the product
across various stores. Online ordering may not
necessarily prove to be time-saving for all consumers.
It can become a tedious process due to several reasons,
some of which may be—poor Internet connection,
poor computer knowledge. This can also cause
consumers to have varied opinions when it comes to
self-service online ordering.

136 Vol. 11, No. 2, May-August, 2020

 An Online Relationship Between Consumer Trends and Food in its Various Avatars

Some people may be able to afford expensive food and waiters at restaurants to serve them a different
products, which may not necessarily tame their hunger. product.
On the contrary, some consumers may be conscious
Consumers are willing to refer the products tried by
spenders and may opt for particular restaurants due to
them to their friends and relatives, which mean that
the presence of suitable portion sizes, which in turn,
marketers can depend upon customers to promote their
will help them, spend economically. Some consumers
products, provided they are satisfied with the same.
are of the opinion that online ordering is faster than
Consumers perceive every food product to have its
offline and others—vice versa. Online ordering may
own cultural aspect which indicates that, there is a
be faster than offline as consumers may save the time
possibility that consumers may associate a negative
spent to travel to the store/restaurant as the product is
aspect of the product with the culture and not with
delivered directly to the consumers’ door. However,
the producer of that food product.
this may not hold true if there is an error while placing
the order or due to the lack of delivery personnel. There
is heterogeneity in the awareness towards functional LIMITATIONS
foods. This may occur due to only some consumers This study is limited to a sample size of 190
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reading up on the types of foods beneficial for their respondents. This study only covers the consumer
health or due to the availability of functional foods in
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behaviours of the respondents residing in and around

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fewer areas. Larger number of consumers prefers their Mumbai, India.

food products to have nutritional values and give lesser
importance to the naturalness of the products.
Consumers prefer their food products to be durable,
which indicates that they may not consume the food
product immediately, and perhaps, stock it for future
use (emergencies). More and more consumers are
willing to try food products which are not on their
shopping list, which means they are open to variety
and welcome the efforts of assistants at grocery stores
SCOPE FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
The sample size can be expanded to get a more varied
result, in terms of consumer behaviour. Also, the
responses can be collected from consumers residing
outside Mumbai, India. More personal factors can be
included in the questionnaire such as qualifications of
the respondents, skills, etc.

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How to cite this article: Michael, R., & Saxena, R.K. (2020). An online relationship between consumer trends and food in its
various avatars. IIMS journal of management science, 11(2), 120-138.

138 Vol. 11, No. 2, May-August, 2020