Examining Developed versus Emerging Economy Online Food and Beverage Purchase Behaviour and Predictors: A Survey Comparison of Indian, Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and United Kingdom Consumers

Aims: Consumers are increasingly using online shopping for purchasing food and beverage (F&B) products. A challenge to industry stakeholders is understanding which elements of online digital media and smart technologies are associated with higher rates of online expenditure that could be strategically targeted. Therefore, the central aims of this study are to identify predictors of online F&B expenditure, and how they differ across developed and emerging economy consumers.

Study Design: This is a quantitative study based on cross-sectional survey data.

Place and Duration of Study: The study is based on data collected in India, China, Indonesia, Japan and the United Kingdom in April 2016.

Methodology: Primary data is collected using online surveys of consumers primarily responsible for F&B grocery shopping within the household. Questionnaires focused on eliciting online expenditure rates for F&B, and associated use of relevant online digital media and smart technologies. Fractional multinomial logit modelling is used to identify statistically significant determinants of respondents’ percentage of expenditure online in each country.

Results: The sample consists of 5,004 respondents: China (1,001), India (998), Indonesia (1,002), Japan (1,002), UK (1,001). In-market technology use is a stronger predictor of online F&B expenditure in emerging than in developed economy markets. The influence of digital information sourcing behaviour and demographics are weak predictors of online F&B expenditure across both developed and emerging economy markets. In general, consumers in emerging economies show greater engagement with digital media and smart technology in relation to online F&B expenditure than their developed economy counterparts.

Conclusion: There is significant variation across countries in the specific determinants of online food and beverage expenditure and the uptake of associated digital media and smart technologies. These insights provide useful direction for focusing effort in targeting channel activators specific to each markets characteristics.