What are the key motivators that influence consumers to use food delivery systems?
Abstract
The aim of the research is to “critically evaluate consumer’s motivation toward the use of
food delivery systems” and the researcher has collected both secondary and primary
data for this dissertation.
The wide-ranging literature review commences with an evaluation of general consumer
motivations and then reviews research by Blesic et al. (2014) who analysed quality,
hygiene, convenience, nearness and accessibility in fast food purchasing as motivators.
In addition, McKinsey (2016) considered consumers' key motivations around the variety
of food offered and convenience. Lastly, Yeo et al. (2017) who determined that the key
factors in consumers' use of food delivery systems are: time saving, money saving, prior
experience and convenience.
The literature review identified that there is an apparent disconnect between theories
relating to the motivators for general hospitality purchasing and food delivery services.
This research collected primary data in order to investigate and analyse these differences
in order to help fill the gaps in the existing body of research relating to food delivery
services in particular.
The primary data collection took a deductive ontological approach through online
quantitative data collection. Due to limitations of time and resources, convenience non
probability sampling was deemed to be appropriate. After data cleansing, there were 98
valid responses with a clear bias toward females and the 18-25 age demographic. The
data set was analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Tests
included standard deviation, correlation, mean and Pearson Chi-square to both
understand the data and to improve validity of results.
The key findings of the research are that trust in online retailers is paramount if
consumers are to buy food for online delivery and that quality was the main determinant
for consumer purchasing. This is in contradiction to the broad tenet of the literature where
the key motivator is identified as convenience.
This work helps address a gap in published research relating to consumers’ motivations
in regard to use of online platforms for food delivery which is important as, at the time of
writing, there is an oversupply of restaurants in the marketplace and diversification into
online delivery may be an increasingly vital part of the sales mix.