Farms in a box

: how a new e-commerce solution is disrupting the purchasing of fresh produce online

Abstract

Box scheme is a service where consumers order fresh fruits and vegetables boxes online and that is delivered directly by producers. This service has emerged as a rapidly growing alternative to conventional grocery deliver systems. However, consumers are not attracted to buy fresh fruits and vegetables online, due to the variable quality and sensory nature of this category. Thus, this study aims to identify the factors that influence consumers’ willingness to purchase fresh fruits and/or vegetables box by e-commerce and to identify which box’s characteristics contributes to the overall customers’ satisfaction leading to repurchase intentions. These factors depend entirely on the online environment and not on the sensory experience of the product itself. Therefore, through an online questionnaire, a sample of 284 participants was collected and used to analyze the results, using confirmatory factor analysis and multiple linear regressions. The results obtained revealed that perceived quality, perceived healthiness, perceived convenience and information availability positively affect consumers’ willingness to purchase the boxes online. Hence, when consumers are willing to order a box online they create expectations for a desire outcome influencing their overall satisfaction with it. In addition, the degree of overall customers’ satisfaction, which has a positive impact on their repurchase intentions, is affected by the level of satisfaction with certain box characteristics, such as flexibility of box composition, freshness of the products and service precision.

Date of Award	18 Jul 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Miguel Rita (Supervisor)