Factors Influencing Consumers Intention for Online Grocery Shopping – A Proposed Framework

Nowadays, Internet is one of the most popular platforms for people to do online shopping including grocery items. Many studies have been conducted to investigate the determinants of customer intentions for online grocery shopping. Till now, there is no consensus on what are the factors that actually influencing people to shop grocery items through Internet. This paper aims to explore the factors such as social influences, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivations, perceived risk and perceived trust that influence the consumer intention to purchase grocery online. Questionnaires will be the main instrument of the study and they will be distributed to target respondents using Internet survey. Respondents of the study will be selected using convenience sampling. After data collection, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) will be employed for data analysis. Overall, the result of the study is important to retailers to identify the important factors in increasing their customers’ intention to purchase grocery online.


Introduction
Nowadays, the Internet has dramatically changed our everyday lives. It has revolutionized to become one of the most popular platforms for people to do online shopping [1]. Online shopping allows consumers to purchase products or services over the Internet from a seller. Online shopping platform requires consumers to transform their traditional ways of shopping since information finding, transaction and purchasing processes as well as the issues in logistics are absolutely different as compared to the existing groceries shopping experience using brick-and-mortar concept [2]. Many online stores will provide extra information about their grocery products. In fact, consumers" purchase intention is usually based on the quality and quantity of the product information [3]. Hedonic motivated consumers will find more information about online grocery shopping as they feel overwhelmed and happy in what they do [4].
Many studies have been conducted to investigate the determinants of customer intentions for online grocery shopping. Social influences play direct impacts on consumer online shopping behavior [5]. Internet self-efficacy or facilitating condition is important to encourage consumers to adopt the online shopping technology processes [6]. However, some consumers have some doubt when purchasing grocery online. The major hindrances such as risk in term of payment that using credit card or debit card and lack of trust in term of quality of grocery products might impede consumers to shop grocery online. Till now, there is no consensus on what are the factors that actually influencing people to shop grocery items through Internet. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the factors including social influences, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivations, perceived risk and perceived trust which influence the consumer intention to purchase grocery online.

Social Influences
According to Venkatesh et al. [26], social influence is defined as the level of an individual perception to use a new system based on the influences of his or her important persons. In a previous research, it has been observed that social influence is built on the merger of individual norm and persona attributes [27]. These attributes are the key points of prominent societal forces that might influence customers" awareness and actions. Moreover, Rashotte [28] defined social influence as how other individuals indirectly or directly change the behavior, attitude, feelings and thoughts of an individual. In other words, it is a process by which individuals develop their real feelings and behaviors as a result of the interaction with other people who are perceived as similar, desirable or expert changes. People adjust their beliefs about others according to the psychological principles to keep their social life balance. People are influenced most when the social group concerning an individual expects them to maintain a particular attitude, and the individual is likely to adopt it as well. The other individuals include parents and peers who interact with the individual frequently will also impact the belief and behaviour of the individual. In addition, the individual can also be influenced by the media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram because this social media has become a significant online platform for individuals to develop their social network [29].
Moreover, Chen et al. [30] emphasized that online word-of-mouth have influence on purchase intention. According to Jalilvanda et al. [31], reviews of online consumer play two roles in social influence which is informative and suggestive. Informative provide an additional user-focused information whereas suggestive give the product popularity positive or negative signals. Consumers who feel associated to a social network consume the social media by seeking for more online activities, and this will lead to a virtual type of friend pressure [32]. Wang et al. [33] stated that the tendency of consumers to communicate with their friends about consumption positively influences their perspective toward any products and services, which results in either they will buy the same brand or avoid the brands in order to be different with their friends. Power and Philips-Wren [34] also agreed that friend pressure on social media is faster and more complete than face-to-face experience.
Hansen et al. [35] stated that the Internet is a social communication and shopping is a cultural practice, therefore it is expected that the influence of subjective norm is significant in the process of adoption of Internet shopping. Therefore, in the context of a developing country, any attempt to quantify the forces responsible for the determining subjective standard and adoption of Internet channel for purchase should be included. Many empirical studies have confirmed that the subjective norm positively give an effect toward intention of buying behavior through the Internet channel [36]. In addition, an empirical study has been done on university academic staff members in Jordan and it is concluded that subjective norm has a significant positive influence on consumer intentions to purchase online [37]. This result also proves by Ranadive [38] in his research about online grocery shopping intentions where subjective norm also be the one of the factors that influences consumers to purchase groceries through the Internet. Moreover, there are other opinions that can impact a consumer"s purchase decision such as normative intent and informational social influence [26]. Normative intent means that when an individual follows the behavior of his or her peers and work partners in order to fulfill a self-defining relationship. On the other hand, informational social influence is viewed as how individuals accept opinions and information from others without questioning for problem solving.

Facilitating Conditions
Venkatesh et al. [26] defined that facilitating conditions are the level of an individual perception on the organizational and technical infrastructure for a new system. Besides, people who are labelled as "digital natives" or individuals who have been exposed to information technology (IT) since their childhood is the type of people that the organisations target for online purchase. Therefore, the individual can be presumed to be rather assertive with using different types of IT applications and connecting in web-enabled social environments [39]. However, if the users are younger generations who mostly live with their parents, their use of the Internet and computer may be influenced, observed and perhaps managed by their parents. As a consequence, the facilitating condition is important predictor of the purchasing intention. Based on social cognitive theory (SCT) [40], self-efficacy is exerted as the facilitating conditions. According to Bandura [41], social cognitive theory (SCT) postulates a triadic reciprocity between the individual"s behavior that intends to fulfill his/her cognitive impression and the environment. Moreover, SCT asserts that the individual tend to be more preferable in accomplishing the behaviors that they believe that will lead to favorable outcome instead of behaviors that will result in negative ones. Furthermore, belief about one"s capability to conduct a specific behavior that is known as selfefficacy and it influences their choices about what behaviors to be implemented [40]. Compeau and Higgins [42] developed an evaluation scale for analyzing computer self-efficacy in ascertaining IT adoption. In addition, the literature has also constructed an equivalent dissimilarity and evaluates the relationship between specific and general computer self-efficacy which is specific self-efficacy is associated with a particular software and application whereas general self-efficacy describes selfefficacy with the computers [43].
Additionally, Internet self-efficacy (ISE) refers to the judgment of one"s ability to organize and execute actions related to Internet in accomplishing online tasks [44] or simply self-evaluations consumption of his/her capacities to shop online. In fact, online shopping transactions is a long and complex process that requires a certain degree of competence to complete it successfully. Therefore, individuals with low ISE are likely evolve less favorable attitudes toward the adoption of purchases through the Internet channel. Indeed, it has also been confirmed that consumers with low self-efficacy of Internet are doubtful and are uncomfortable with online purchases [45]. Apparently, the acquisition of ISE is potentially a crucial level in achieving the adoption of process in online shopping by potential consumers [46].
In fact, many research studies have empirically showed that Internet self-efficacy is a crucial step in the adoption of online shopping technology processes [6]. Besides, empirical research that addresses the online shopping context has also concluded that internet self-efficacy will positively affect consumers" behavioral intention to use this technology to shop online [47]. From the discussion above, it is clearly stated that self-efficacy with the computer and Internet is an important thing that consumers need to know in order to purchase grocery through the Internet and the consumers need to know how to use the computer and Internet as well. That is the reason why people who are not so skilful in using computer and Internet will less likely to shop grocery online than people can master the skill.

Hedonic Motivations
According to Babin et al. [48], hedonic shopping motivations are described as the benefits such as fun and satisfaction gained from the buyer"s purchasing decision based on their occurrence. Therefore, the appearance of hedonic on purchases consists of pleasure and entertainment based on the shopping experience. In online shopping, hedonic motivations are related to the different types of purchases, for example, commercial experience, idea, shopping satisfaction, and value purchases [49]. Moreover, hedonic motivation definitely affects the attitude of the consumers toward online shopping [50] and effective shopping technology [51]. Apart from that, based on To et al. [52], hedonic buyers are seeking natural experiences based on physical, psychological stimulation, value, and aesthetics which increase the contentment and pleasure of online shopping. Since hedonic purchasers increase in number, providing hedonic value also became a significant source of income in business online [53].
There are different reasons for shopping compared to the buying needs in the past [54]. In the past, consumers do shopping because of their need but nowadays, many consumers are driven by hedonic motivation when doing their shopping as they will achieve joy and entertainment in the process [55]. Sometimes, for some consumers, they can get the feel of enjoyment when they do online shopping using information technology [56]. Some researchers have also claimed that hedonic motivation plays an important role in forming a positive behavior to online shopping [57]. Consumers with strong hedonistic motivation will enjoy the process of finding information about the product than the usefulness of the purchased product [4]. Moreover, hedonic motivated consumers will also spend more time to search, compare and select the online store because they enjoy doing the actions. Therefore, online grocery structure provides consumer with an option to search, compare, and access information about the grocery items much more convenient and at a profound levels than within the bricks and mortar groceries store [58]. Thus, hedonic motivated consumers will find more information about online groceries shopping as they feel overwhelmed and happy in what they do. From the past research, hedonic motivation construct has also been concluded to be an influential factor of the information technology uses in the context of consumer behavior [50]. Furthermore, To et al. [52] also emphasize that hedonic motivation construct is constantly significant due to the recognizable motivations that attract consumers to visit websites of a sellers" online. From previous study that conducted in Taiwan, Liao, Fei, and Chen [59] those motivations of online shopping of adults from hedonic motivation which it is not only influence the search intention, but indirectly influence the intention to shop online. Therefore, Chiu et al. [60] showed that hedonic motivation has positive relationship with consumer"s purchase intention in online shopping.
In addition Mathwick et al. [61] evaluated that the experimental value in online shopping which is the intrinsic experimental value comprising pleasure and aesthetics. Such experimental value should be considered as hedonic value. Furthermore, Kim and Shim [62] claimed that customers who shop online are not only seeking for the excitement in gathering information and purchase products but are also meeting their demands of experience and sentiment, which proves that online buyers are like buyers in the actual world. Parsons [63] affirmed that online buyers are influenced by hedonic motivations to shop online. Hence, it can be assume that hedonic motivations in online grocery shopping do exist.

Perceived Risk
Perceived risk is extremely important for online buyers [64] particularly when the buyers have no information about seller [65]. Also, perceived risk is subjective which differentiates the users individually because every person has his or her own thought on matter and experiences. According to Featherman and Pavlou [66], perceived risk is also known as consumers" degree of doubt concerning the outcome of their decision in online purchasing. Nevertheless, if the online purchasers are able to know and comprehend the information regarding the product that they want to purchase, the risk can be minimized [67]. Perceived risks consist of different types which are monetary risk, time risk, social risk, psychological risk, source risk and general risk. Bhatnagar et al. [68] described that risks are linked to not gaining what is anticipated which in turns triggers the dissatisfaction.
Based on previous research, perceived risk is becoming the key element when consumers want to make the decision in the online shopping process [69]. In the context of customers" perspective, purchases that happen in a conventional store are less risky compared to the purchases that take place in online store [70]. From a managerial sentiment, managers who understand the consumer"s risks and consumer reaction are able to lessen the risks and help them to improve their business possibility and strategies [71]. According to Miyazaki and Fernandez [72], buyers who perceived high risks in online shopping are more probably to make lesser purchases than buyers who perceived low risks.
In the e-commerce research, perceived risk has always been one of the vital barriers to the development of multichannel shopping [73]. Consequently, buyers could see different types of risks like their incapacity to examine a product before buying it [74], fright of giving information of their credit card to an online seller, loss of seclusion indirect channels and expending too much time on purchase transaction or the waiting for the product to be delivered [75]. Ranganathan and Ganapathy [76] found that concerns about security had the greatest effect on the consumers" intention to purchase groceries online. Results acquired by Odekerken-Schro¨der and Wetzels [77] state that online consumers worry about the products quality. These results also prove by Geuens et al. [78] where most online consumers worry about the quality of fresh food products that are delivered to them from an online grocery store. Hansen [79] conceptualizes perceived risk as the extent to which consumer believes it is risky to use the Internet for grocery shopping.
Besides, Internet trustworthiness is also related to the customers" concerns about privacy when they want to shop online. These concerns involve the unauthorized obtaining of personal information during the usage of Internet or the supplying of personal information collected by the vendors [80]. Similarly, the study found that the belief in the personal information privacy was related with negative perspective toward online purchasing. The available literatures on online purchasing and privacy stated that a large number of Internet shoppers do not have enough trust in the vendors in order to provide their personal information [81]. The study suggested that as the privacy concerns increases, the likelihood of online purchasing will decreases. From my point of view, perceived risk will give a big impact toward intention to purchase grocery online. Customers take this as an important thing before making any decision to do an Internet purchasing. However, there are some customers that have less concern about this issue. This is due to customers who like to purchase more on the Internet are more concerned about the creation of privacy laws. So, it can be concluded that customers that place importance on the perceived risk of online shopping are less likely to purchase grocery online.

Perceived Trust
According to Chung and Kwon [82], trust is defined as a safe feeling to others and something that individuals can depend on. Fam et al. [83] stated that trust and satisfaction of the customer can be built in certain specific time. Consequently, trust can also be described as an assumption that people will not behave unscrupulously and that the sellers have to provide what has been promised to the customers [84]. Regardless of the variety of definitions, trust is commonly considered crucial in online atmosphere because of different types of risks that people will face during the buying process [85]. Perceived trust is classified into two processes: trust as a way of thinking, faith, viewpoint and trust as a perceived likelihood that including liability and unreliability [86]. In addition, McCole [87] summarized ten most quoted elements of trust that are regularly used in the literature such as opportunity, capability, constancy, distinctiveness, justice, morality, faithfulness, acceptance, agreement and accomplishment. Therefore, consumer"s perceived trust in the electronic commerce situation of purchasing has an effect on the transactions and personal information privacy [88].
Kim et al. [15] stated that the characteristics of trust have been examined in many studies in numerous divergent scopes, like fiscal, administration, technology, civil, customer actions and psychology. Trust is a form of the purchaser"s assumption that the dealer does not have an opportunistic stance and will not take benefit of the condition, yet will act in a reliable, behavioral and socially responsible attitude and fulfilling the responsibility in spite of the purchaser"s subjection [84]. Consequently, the purchasers" trustworthiness is probable to decide the ultimate purchase decision between a purchaser and a dealer [89]. According to Li et al. [90], trust plays more crucial role for online than for offline as customers perceive greater risk in online shopping due to their incapacity to visit a store and examine the product that they are interested in personally. In addition, trust plays a pivotal role in determining intentions of online purchase [91] and purchasing decisions [92]. Trust is also being the main point for consumer loyalty and long term relationship between purchasers and sellers [93].
In the online groceries shopping, trust is a pivotal factor that influences consumers in their decision to buy or not especially for fresh products. Most of customers lack trusts in employees" choice and product quality without seeing it themselves like they do in groceries stores [94]. It is because putting trust into the employees who aren't necessarily as observant isn't easy. Example of consumers purchases groceries in Amazon, consumers cannot choose by themselves between "ripe" and "not ripe" avocados because it chooses by their employees. So, it can assume that everything in online groceries shopping is a gamble [95]. Based on the previous studies, it shows that people tend to shop online if they discern high trust in online shopping [96]. On the other hand, Wang and Emurian [97] proposed that trust is becoming an important factor of online shopping in the future. Wen [98] also stated that purchasers" trust has a positive effect toward online purchase intention. In that case, it can be said that trust influences consumers" intention to shop grocery online. It is because people tend to purchase and repurchase if the vendor are able to provide them the feeling of trust about their grocery products. In addition, the retailers who are able to deliver what they promise and avoid any mistake that will disappoint the customers can build stronger trust among the consumers. This is due to customers have the power of word of mouth that can give negative or positive effect to the retailers.

Research Framework
Conceptual framework guides the researchers in determining the result and the statistical relationship that will be examined between the dependent variable and independent variables. As indicated in Figure 1, factors including social influences, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivations, perceived trust and perceived risk are used to examine their effects on the online grocery purchase intention.

Research Methodology
Descriptive study will be used in this study and it is employed to investigate a representative sample of online consumers in order to identify the relationships between social influences, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivations, perceived risk, perceived trust and online grocery purchase intention. Online survey is the major instrument of the study. Convenience sampling technique will be used to select the respondents. Since convenience sampling provides easy access to choose its respondent, a link of the questionnaire via private message and email will be sent to the respondents. The data of the study will be analysed using normality test, reliability test, validity test and multiple regression analysis. Multiple regression will be used to investigate the relationships between social influences, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivations, perceived trust, perceived risk and online grocery purchase intention. The data collected from the respondents will be analysed using Software Package used for Statistical Analysis (SPSS).

Conclusion
Future empirical studies are needed to test the effect of social influences, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivations, perceived risk and perceived trust on consumer intention to purchase grocery online. The result is important to online retailers as it can help them to understand what factors that drive Malaysian consumers for online grocery purchase intention. Additionally, the findings will assist them in generating necessary and effective actions to attract the attention of Malaysian consumers towards online grocery shopping since purchasing groceries through Internet is not extensively used in Malaysia. Finally, this paper contributes to the literature of factors influencing consumers in online shopping, particularly in Malaysia.