Online Grocery Shopping Australian Region

Question: Discuss about theOnline Grocery Shoppingfor Australian Region. Answer: Introduction Online grocery is recognised as one of the most stimulating markets in the Australian region. Australian in the online grocery sales has ranked in the fifth position in the global context. As per the report of IBIS World, the Australian market is valued approximately to $2.2 billion and is estimated with growth at about 15% a year (www.linkedin.com, 2016). Additionally, the researchers conducted by the previous scholars reflects that the Australian online grocery is expected to become a market disruptor of around 12% and the e-commerce sector has the potential to reach 20% of its overall grocery chain. Against the latter statement, Anderson et al. (2010) inferred that despite the considerable potential of online grocery retailing options, the sector is comprised of few challenges which are potentially delaying its future development both in the Australia and in the global market. According to Hinterhuber Bertini (2011), the first point of obstruction is its present complexity of online shopping. In the online segments the customers easily get the facility of ordering the products from home without affecting the productive time, however, sometimes the fails quality fail to match up with the original version. The customers have provided several reviews regarding the product duplicity. With the specific complexities, the customers perceive the physical shopping option to be much easier. Assessing on the latter context, Ying Zhang (2012) mentioned that the unfortunate execution of the online grocery model has also delayed the development of the online grocery. In the majority of the times, the customers just view the online products and purchase it from the physical stores. OCass Carlson (2012) figured out the majority of the Australian customer visit the online grocery sites just to know the price ranges of the products. Moreover, the product security issue is one of the major concerns of online grocery. Literature Review and Application to the Contemporary Issue In the framework of the present context, Markey et al. (2007) denoted that Woolworths and Coles tend to dominate the Australian online segment, the organisations face significant potential competition in this young market. Woolworths and Coles have dedicated staffs who are instructed to pick food for the customers manually. Christ (2007) explained that the GroceryRun has an automated system that leads to picking up and halve a delivery time. The above aspects have created greater competition for the online grocery spacein the Australian market. The previous records reflect that one of the most significant challenges the Australian online grocery retail experience is the lack of quality assurance the target customers have over the products that are received. Since the Australian customers rely heavily on the physical retail store to select the grocery-based products. The physical stores are majorly preferred over the online groceries due to the visibility and the tangibility concept ( www.theguardian.com/money, 2016). The customers can read the in gradients, touch the products and make the procurement after being completely ensured of the product quality and the value it would serve after the consumption. The current statistics on e-commerce indicates that online grocery shopping is an emerging trend across the globe. Many groceries stores offer a new website to demonstrate the goods so that the customers can easily identify the required products. In the opinion of Mehdi (2015), buying groceries online can be very convenient to the customers as it can save the time and energy. However, there are several key issues related to the online grocery shopping. The foremost problem of online shopping faced by the people is the delivery issue. The customers cannot receive the product immediately. Thus, after purchasing the customers have to wait for the arrivals of the products (Belavina et al. 2016). It has been observed that the grocery delivery services dont have any fixed amount as the shipping charge while delivering the products to the customers doorstep. In this current context, several scholars stated that most of the items are cheaper in an online web store. The additional shipping ch arge makes the price of the products similar or more expensive than the nearby local store (Zivic Shea, 2011). Furthermore, due to the shipping problems, delivery risk occurs to the customers by receiving damaged and duplicate products. According to the view of Anesbury et al. (2015), anonymity is the other possible disadvantage while shopping groceries via online. The customers cannot make any human interaction with the store staff while purchasing the products. Adding to this, product quality and freshness are the major barriers for online grocery shopping (Cho, 2011). It has been observed that sometimes the descriptions of the products are different from the actual products. As a consequence, the customers can receive an inferior quality of the products. Moreover, the online scam and fraud cases are also increasing as long as the online grocery shopping is becoming very frequent (Jones, 2014). Returning the item is another factor that disappoints the customers in case of online grocery shopping. It has been recognised that the grocery products are sold without having any international warranty. Supporting the prior statement Hirogaki (2015) added that the group of consumers cannot communicate with the sellers regarding the warranty issues of the products. Thus, it can be treated as one of the major contemporary issues while buying the grocery items via online. The past researches indicate that majority of the Australian buyers are quite pi cky about the groceries. For example Bressolles et al. (2007) mentioned that if people do not find the favourite brand of biscuit, then the people go for the second preference available in the store. But in a case of an online option, the customers do not get such option while purchasing the goods. It has been found that if the favourite brand is not displayed in the online catalogue or it happens to be out of stock, then in both of the cases, customers have to go to the local market (Zivic Shea, 2011). Sub-standard fruits, vegetables, frozen foods and the close to expiry date dairy products are the few significant points that minimise the brand loyalty towards the customers. Finally, the customers have loses the social experience of grocery shopping while buying the groceries products through online. As per the opinion of Thackeray et al. (2007), nearly half of the customers experience issues in the online purchase. The survey conducted by the previous scholars in the specific area reports that 46% of the customers have faced seller related issues. The vendors appointed for the online product delivery procedure requires maintaining a firm and composed attitude. In the high percentages of the times the customers fail to jot the exact address while ordering the products, therefore, the sellers be the victim of the residential misguidance. Grefen (2013) identified that 19% of the customers had faced the issue in the delivery process, 13% of the customers have complained regarding the faulty product, 11% of the customers are unsatisfied because the products were left outside the home without any permission and the unexpected fees charged 4%. The previous statistics reflect that the consumers are increasingly purchasing the majority of the fashion based goods from the online sites. Almost 47% customers prefer buying the clothes and footwear online than the grocery segment. In the context of the previous statement, Markey et al. (2007) determined that the grocery-based products have a high chance of getting perishable within the shorter period. However, Ying Zhang (2012) argued that the majority of the online brands provide a replacement option within the tenure of at least seven days. The customers still are not satisfied with the service lines the brand's online brands provide with regards to the grocery-based products. Therefore, in the Australian market, the e-commerce brands operating with the fashion and other accessories have managed to retain its loyal set of prospects. On the other hand, due to the perishable nature of the grocery-based products, the segment fails to convince the target customers with the product and service lines. The Internet Crime Complaint Centre has denoted that the complaints regarding the online payment fraud made by consumers in 2007 have reached to an approximate figure of $239 million, which is comparatively more than to $198 million complaints raised in 2006. Different consumers are rightfully troubled regarding the financial information system, such as providing the credit card or debit card details. Contrary to the latter statement, Markey et al. (2007) mentioned that the online payment services are offering restricted protections regarding the confidential details. The viewers fail to read the instruction clearly and formulated a wrong perception regarding the financial securities of the online groceries. Considering on the common issue of the online grocery, instability in the product quality is the major hindrance the customers face in the Australian market. Recommendations and Limitations In todays fast changing market Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) food and beverage are looking for an incremental growth to eliminate the wholesale costs by going directly to the consumer. In this current context of online grocery shopping, trust is one of the major factors to achieve a sustainable brand position (Solomon, 2009). Thus, it can be suggested that the online grocery business of Australia would need to have a huge variety of all the products with the regular promotional updates to draw the attention of the customers. This process would also be helpful to offer fresh and standard products to the customers. As the quality and freshness of products like fruits and vegetables is the biggest concern in online grocery purchase, thus the online shopkeeper has kept a special attention for delivering a high quality of products. As per the view of Mehdi (2015), the online grocery companies of Australia have to segment the premium and regular customers to minimise the delivery charge is sues. In this current scenario, it has been observed that the customers are frequently shifting the brand while purchasing the online grocery items due to the issues of impulsive service delivery charge. Therefore, it can be depicted that segmentation between the premium and a regular group of customers could be beneficial to bring the sustainability by eliminating the challenging situation (Hirogaki, 2015). In addition, the grocery companies can schedule a fixed time to deliver the products to the customer doorstep so that the customer can be available to attain the delivery boy. Supporting this De Kervenoael et al. (2014) cited that the grocery companies can set a fixed time for the customers to receive the products from the store after online purchasing. The time gap of 2 to 3 hours would be convenient both for the consumers and the sellers to eliminate the delivery risks. Furthermore, it is suggested that the customers have to be more aware of the credit card fraud and the other spyware troubles while making online payment for the purchased goods. Considering the words of Cho (2011), the management of the online shopping companies have to incorporate secure payment gateway structure and the other secure facilities so that the customers can attain a scam free website to buy the products easily and regularly. Moreover, it is also essential to hire trained staff members to mitigate the queries of customers while online purchasing takes place. As the customers do not get any human interaction while buying the groceries the group of people might get confused about the orderings. Hence, appointing well-trained staff members to resolve the customers queries could be a beneficial involvement for the online grocery shopping organisations (Anesbury et al. 2015). Additionally, checking the products with the company warranty is necessary for the online buyers. In this context, Belavina et al. (2016) mentioned that the online shopping organisations of Australia have to provide company warranty to convince the customers and preserve the brand image. This process would also help the company to verify the product batch code number product ID mentioned on the product. Moreover, it would also be helpful for the online grocery shopping companies to improve brand loyalty index towards the customers. Accumulating the relevant details regarding the subject matter of the persuasive essay has been the major constraints. In the present era, the Australian market is highly inclined towards the online grocery shopping concept. Thus, finding updated information regarding its issues has been relatively sturdy. The majority of the secondary sources like the journals, books and e-learning sites highlight the positive aspects of the e-commerce grocery segments. However, the internet serves to be the potent source of updated information related to the issues the customers are facing with the online grocery services in the Australian market. References: Linkedin (2013) Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/challenges-online-grocery-retailing-australia-reeza-azmir. Anderson, J., Kupp, M. Vandermerwe, S. (2010) Good Business makes poor customers Good Customers,Business Strategy Review, 21(4), 4651. Anesbury, Z., Nenycz-Thiel, M., Dawes, J., Kennedy, R. (2015). How do shoppers behave online? An observational study of online grocery shopping. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 3(1), 1618. Belavina, E., Girotra, K., Kabra, A. (2016). Online grocery retail: Revenue models and environmental impact. 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