case 3 Food and the Online Grocery Competition en everybody\'s busy, something\'

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case 3 Food and the Online Grocery Competition en everybody's busy, something's got to give. The instruct the professional shopper as to the user's par , grocery shopping online ticular preferences. Categories of items that can b online grocery industry (that is and home livery of purchased items) has developed purchased are continually expanding, from foods e past 20 years to address today's consumer drugstore items and other merchandise. th demands of convenience and time savings. Perhaps the best known provider in the industry is Pea Online grocery providers tend to conduct the online business very well, if customer satisfaction, repeat visits pod.com, an operation that began outside Chicago. Since its founding and word-of-mouth advertising are any indicators. That in 1989, it has expanded to 18 U.S. markets, making over is, the software provided, the merchandise selected, the 10 million deliveries to over 270,000 customers. Other delivery reliability, and so on, are valued by the customer national competitors have entered the market, but only a with few complaints. Most users are women, employed few have had any staying power. One of these is netgrocer full-time, and married, with well-above-average house com which delivers groceries and an assortment of other hold incomes merchandise as well across the country using FedEx. In Ashley Sims is an M.B.A. student, taking her la addition to larger multi-market online grocers, there have term of classes, and thinking about starting up a local been many local providers online grocer. She's certain that by learning from the Online grocery services typically provide virtual templates of the current providers in other markets, she, stores through which the electronic visitor navigates, as too if pushing a shopping cart in a traditional grocer. The hopes that, given her contacts with user clicks on items to purchase, user's cart. When complete, the user is "checked out," setup, if she understands the consumers' pecifying a delivery date and time. Users pay delivery travel through the e-grocery stores. She wants to know costs proportionate to each shopping b , can run the logistics of the business. However, she which are placed in the she can create a competitive advantage in the so computer experts are just what a user is thinking from the first click onto the The software allows the user to store his or her pref- Web site to the last "Done Shopping" click off the site. ences in a personal shopping list that can be altered, This knowledge would allow her to offer better advice to adding or deleting items as necessary with each e-visit. her software developers in terms of what features would Across the various providers, the software also usually facilitate the visitors' navigation through the grocery allows easy consumer comparison. For example, the store. Data like these would help improve the system, SKUs in a particular category may be sorted by brand and it would also lend great insight to the consumers name, by price, by value (price per ounce, for example), decision processe by what is on "feature" (sale and point-of-purchase pro motions), by various dietetic goals (such as "healthy," low fat"), and so on. The user may w specify green (unripe) bananas, not yellow on Feast is out of Questions rite in "notes," to in more detail, for example, "Please 1. What is the decision problem? pick up es." or "If Fancy beef, please get turkey instead," which 2. What is (are) the research problem(s)? 3. Prepare a research proposal to submit to an grocer on behalf of your research team

Explanation / Answer

1. What is the decision problem?

Sol: Ashley at first needs to decide on the most crucial decision taken before starting any business. That is “should she enter this market of e-food online service. It becomes even more important citing that there are already established competitors in market and this industry has its own niche challenges.” Reading the case study it seems reasonable that Ashley knows her chances of making good in this industry as she through her study believes the industry is profitable and could stand another competitor. And if she can come up with a better online software, market dominance is achievable.

Second decision problem she faces is what properties should her software have which would make the already catered customer base first try her platform and later switch too. From case study it is very clear that software has to be user-friendly and attractive to the grocery shopping user. Also it should be able to provide what marketing managers needs at this point that is customer behavior. An insight into the consumer decision-making processes to the buyers of the databases. That too while still remaining within the ethical circle of customer service

2. What is (are) the research problem(s)?

Sol:

Customer value is the utility doerived from consumption if a certain product or service. In other words it is the sum of the benefits delivered to the customer less the total costs of acquiring the delivered benefits.

This gives research problems as follows:

The case mentions that most users of the competitors’ software are women who hold fulltime jobs, are married and have household incomes of more than $100k. She could always start her research with a sample consisting of above mentioned women consumer base.

3. Prepare a research proposal to submit to an online grocer on behalf of your research team.

Main structure of research problem:

For this she can refer to discussion problems discussed in question 1

Here she can show her knowledge and research done on industry. Her coverage of needs of the online grocery shopper and problems they face at present

Her goals are two main as described in question 1

To understand online grocery shoppers need and issues

To understand the need of marketing managers to make her business profitable

She can limit her study initially to candid questions like favorite Web sites and what are the reason they like it.

What all are the changes they would like to see in their online software

The main cost for this project would be cost of development of the mock online grocery software. Next initial cost would be Sample Participant costs for the reactions to the software

And lastly the data obtained from the marketing managers that will be more costly.

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