Socio-demographic factors affecting willingness to purchase groceries online

Edmira Shahu^1*, Jona Mulliri¹, Ledia Thoma¹

¹Faculty of Economics and Agribusiness, Agriculture University of Tirana, Albania

Abstract
Online shopping is recently becoming more and more important and includes a very wide range of products. During the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the severe restrictions imposed by many countries online sales increased rapidly for several products, including here food products. The aim of this paper is to study the factors that influence Albanian consumers’ willingness to buy online groceries. The data used in this survey was conducted in three regions of Albania during January-April 2022. Data analysis showed that the Albanian consumer mainly uses online shopping to purchase clothing, cosmetics, and electronic devices. To a small extent, especially in the Tirana region, there are also online purchases of food products. Meanwhile, about 30% of the respondents state an intention to online food purchases if provided a guarantee on product characteristics. Factors such as income, education and technological abilities have a significant impact on the willingness to buy groceries online. The impact of COVID-19 on online food purchasing turned out to be weak and with short lasting effect

Keywords: Consumer behavior, online shopping, food products, willingness to buy, COVID-19
JEL Codes: C10, C12, C52, D12, L81