IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i12p4958-d373024.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

E-Consumers and Local Food Products: A Perspective for Developing Online Shopping for Local Goods in Poland

Author

Listed:
  • Anetta Barska

    (Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Zielona Góra, 65-246 Zielona Góra, Poland)

  • Julia Wojciechowska-Solis

    (Faculty of Agrobioengineering, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland)

Abstract

The constant development of consumer awareness regarding sustainable development has spread to food markets. Decisions related to food consumption are increasingly becoming, for consumers, an opportunity to demonstrate a specific value system, contesting mass and globally distributed food. Local products began to appreciate local produce, which is the opposite of mass production. Local food is gaining popularity, being perceived as healthier, unprocessed, and containing fewer preservative compounds, while also requiring fewer natural resources, leading to a lower environmental footprint. The phenomenon of shopping virtualization has also been growing in strength lately, especially among food consumers. Although Polish food e-commerce is still relatively undeveloped, online food sales have been the fastest growing category of Internet sales. According to experts, by 2026, nearly 40% of all products globally will be sold online. The main purpose of this article was to identify the behavior of Polish consumers shopping online for local food products and to identify barriers to purchase. Our findings were then used to determine development opportunities for this form of trade in relation to local food in the light of new legislative solutions currently in force in Poland. As part of the research procedure, an extensive literature review was carried out. In addition, some of the research findings were cited regarding consumer behavior in the local food market, conducted on a population of 1067 respondents. The study showed that Polish e-consumers of local products are usually aged 30–40, well-educated, and are in a good financial situation. Respondents pointed to high prices as the main barrier to buying local products via the Internet, a drawback which may be remedied to some extent by the recently adopted legislative solutions falling under the scope of what is termed in Poland as agricultural retail trade as well as by the promotion of short supply chains such as the Polska Smakuje initiative.

Suggested Citation

  • Anetta Barska & Julia Wojciechowska-Solis, 2020. "E-Consumers and Local Food Products: A Perspective for Developing Online Shopping for Local Goods in Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-17, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:12:p:4958-:d:373024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/12/4958/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/12/4958/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Theresa Selfa & Joan Qazi, 2005. "Place, Taste, or Face-to-Face? Understanding Producer–Consumer Networks in “Local” Food Systems in Washington State," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 22(4), pages 451-464, December.
    2. Michał A. Jerzak & Magdalena Śmiglak-Krajewska, 2020. "Globalization of the Market for Vegetable Protein Feed and Its Impact on Sustainable Agricultural Development and Food Security in EU Countries Illustrated by the Example of Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-13, January.
    3. Alina Butu & Codrin Dinu Vasiliu & Steliana Rodino & Ioan-Sebastian Brumă & Lucian Tanasă & Marian Butu, 2019. "The Process of Ethnocentralizing the Concept of Ecological Agroalimentary Products for the Romanian Urban Consumer," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-23, November.
    4. Nganje, William E. & Hughner, Renee Shaw & Lee, Nicholas E., 2011. "State-Branded Programs and Consumer Preference for Locally Grown Produce," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 40(1), pages 1-13, April.
    5. Götze, F. & Mann, S. & Ferjani, A. & Kohler, A. & Heckelei, T., 2016. "An Approach Towards Explaining Market Shares of Organic Food – Evidence from Swiss Household Data," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 51, March.
    6. Gabriela Hanus, 2016. "Consumer Behaviour During Online Grocery Shopping," CBU International Conference Proceedings, ISE Research Institute, vol. 4(0), pages 010-013, September.
    7. Drago Cvijanović & Svetlana Ignjatijević & Jelena Vapa Tankosić & Vojin Cvijanović, 2020. "Do Local Food Products Contribute to Sustainable Economic Development?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-18, April.
    8. Zepeda, Lydia & Leviten-Reid, Catherine, 2004. "Consumers' Views on Local Food," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 35(3), pages 1-6, November.
    9. Alina Butu & Codrin Dinu Vasiliu & Steliana Rodino & Ioan-Sebastian Brumă & Lucian Tanasă & Marian Butu, 2019. "The Anthropological Analysis of the Key Determinants on the Purchase Decision Taken by the Romanian Consumers Regarding the Ecological Agroalimentary Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-22, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wojciech Sroka & Dariusz Żmija, 2021. "Farming Systems Changes in the Urban Shadow: A Mixed Approach Based on Statistical Analysis and Expert Surveys," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-29, May.
    2. Ioan Sebastian Brumă & Codrin Dinu Vasiliu & Steliana Rodino & Marian Butu & Lucian Tanasă & Sebastian Doboș & Alina Butu & Oana Coca & Gavril Stefan, 2021. "The Behavior of Dairy Consumers in Short Food Supply Chains during COVID-19 Pandemic in Suceava Area, Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-22, March.
    3. Agnieszka Rzepka & Magdalena Maciaszczyk & Anna Maria Wisniewska & Maria Kocot, 2021. "E-Consumers and their Agile Qualities as Creators of Eco-Innovations: A Case Study," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2B), pages 23-38.
    4. Magdalena Śmiglak-Krajewska & Julia Wojciechowska-Solis & Domenico Viti, 2020. "Consumers’ Purchasing Intentions on the Legume Market as Evidence of Sustainable Behaviour," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, September.
    5. Susan (Sixue) Jia, 2021. "Local Food Campaign in a Globalization Context: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-11, July.
    6. Mengmeng Wang & Wenjie Yang, 2021. "What Drives Rural Consumers to Change E-Commerce Attitude and Adopt E-Commerce through the Moderating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in an Emerging Market? An Empirical Investigation in the C," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-22, November.
    7. Julia Wojciechowska-Solis & Anetta Barska, 2021. "Exploring the Preferences of Consumers’ Organic Products in Aspects of Sustainable Consumption: The Case of the Polish Consumer," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-17, February.
    8. Rosalia Stella Evola & Giovanni Peira & Erica Varese & Alessandro Bonadonna & Enrica Vesce, 2022. "Short Food Supply Chains in Europe: Scientific Research Directions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-20, March.
    9. Soyoung An & Thomas Eck & Huirang Yim, 2023. "Understanding Consumers’ Acceptance Intention to Use Mobile Food Delivery Applications through an Extended Technology Acceptance Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, January.
    10. Sabina Krsnik & Karmen Erjavec, 2021. "Awareness, Attitudes and Purchase of Food With Quality Labels in Slovenia," Tržište/Market, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 33(2), pages 205-219.
    11. Pollák František & Vavrek Roman & Váchal Jan & Markovič Peter & Konečný Michal, 2021. "Analysis of Digital Customer Communities in terms of their interactions during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 16(2), pages 134-151, June.
    12. Ildikó Kovács & Marietta Balázsné Lendvai & Judit Beke, 2022. "The Importance of Food Attributes and Motivational Factors for Purchasing Local Food Products: Segmentation of Young Local Food Consumers in Hungary," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-14, March.
    13. Magdalena Śmiglak-Krajewska & Julia Wojciechowska-Solis, 2021. "Consumer versus Organic Products in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Opportunities and Barriers to Market Development," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-22, September.
    14. Maria Kocot & Damian Kocot, 2022. "Internet Prosumer Activity Levels," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2), pages 104-117.
    15. Elena Horská & Marek Petriľák & Peter Šedík & Ľudmila Nagyová, 2020. "Factors Influencing the Sale of Local Products through Short Supply Chains: A Case of Family Dairy Farms in Slovakia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-17, October.
    16. Bilgesu Bayir & Aurélie Charles & Aicha Sekhari & Yacine Ouzrout, 2022. "Issues and Challenges in Short Food Supply Chains: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-20, March.
    17. Adil Zia & Musaad Alzahrani & Abdullah Alomari & Fahad AlGhamdi, 2022. "Investigating the Drivers of Sustainable Consumption and Their Impact on Online Purchase Intentions for Agricultural Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-17, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ioan Sebastian Brumă & Simona-Roxana Ulman & Cristina Cautisanu & Lucian Tanasă & Gabriel Vasile Hoha, 2021. "Sustainability in the Case of Small Vegetable Farmers: A Matrix Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-32, September.
    2. Maria Teresa Trentinaglia De Daverio & Teresina Mancuso & Massimo Peri & Lucia Baldi, 2020. "How Does Consumers’ Care for Origin Shape Their Behavioural Gap for Environmentally Friendly Products?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Jelena Vapa-Tankosić & Svetlana Ignjatijević & Jelena Kiurski & Jovana Milenković & Irena Milojević, 2020. "Analysis of Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Organic and Local Honey in Serbia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-23, June.
    4. Bavorova, Miroslava & Unay-Gailhard, İlkay & Lehberger, Mira, 2016. "Who buys from farmers’ markets and farm shops: The case of Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 40(1), pages 107-114.
    5. Ioan Sebastian Brumă & Codrin Dinu Vasiliu & Steliana Rodino & Marian Butu & Lucian Tanasă & Sebastian Doboș & Alina Butu & Oana Coca & Gavril Stefan, 2021. "The Behavior of Dairy Consumers in Short Food Supply Chains during COVID-19 Pandemic in Suceava Area, Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-22, March.
    6. Irz, Xavier & Leroy, Pascal & Réquillart, Vincent & Solerb, Louis-Georges, 2015. "Farmers' Markets and Farm Shops in Germany: is the motivation to buy there the same?," 143rd Joint EAAE/AAEA Seminar, March 25-27, 2015, Naples, Italy 202721, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Carroll, Kathryn A. & Bernard, John C. & Pesek, John D. Jr., 2013. "Consumer Preferences for Tomatoes: The Influence of Local, Organic, and State Program Promotions by Purchasing Venue," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 38(3), pages 1-18.
    8. J. Valiente-Neighbours, 2012. "Mobility, embodiment, and scales: Filipino immigrant perspectives on local food," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(4), pages 531-541, December.
    9. Sittidaj Pongkijvorasin & Steven R. McGreevy, 2021. "Loving local beans? The challenge of valorizing local food in the Thai highlands," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(12), pages 17305-17328, December.
    10. Printezis, Iryna & Grebitus, Carola, 2018. "Marketing Channels for Local Food," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 161-171.
    11. Jelena Vapa-Tankosić & Vera Miler-Jerković & Dejan Jeremić & Slobodan Stanojević & Gordana Radović, 2020. "Investment in Research and Development and New Technological Adoption for the Sustainable Beekeeping Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-17, July.
    12. Sini Forssell & Leena Lankoski, 2015. "The sustainability promise of alternative food networks: an examination through “alternative” characteristics," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(1), pages 63-75, March.
    13. Joshua Sbicca & India Luxton & James Hale & Kassandra Roeser, 2019. "Collaborative Concession in Food Movement Networks: The Uneven Relations of Resource Mobilization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, May.
    14. Lydia Zepeda & Anna Reznickova & Willow Russell, 2013. "CSA membership and psychological needs fulfillment: an application of self-determination theory," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(4), pages 605-614, December.
    15. Sarah Bowen & Tad Mutersbaugh, 2014. "Local or localized? Exploring the contributions of Franco-Mediterranean agrifood theory to alternative food research," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(2), pages 201-213, June.
    16. Velandia, Margarita & Clark, Christopher D. & Lambert, Dayton M. & Davis, James A. & Jensen, Kimberly & Wszelaki, Annette & Wilcox, Michael D., 2014. "Factors Affecting Producer Participation in State-sponsored Marketing Programs: The Case of Fruit and Vegetable Growers in Tennessee," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(2), pages 249-265, August.
    17. Min-Xing Wang & Lufei Huang & Zhen-Ming Chen, 2023. "The Impact of Green Financial Policy on the Regional Economic Development Level and AQI—Evidence from Zhejiang Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-23, February.
    18. Maples, McKenzie & Morgan, Kimberly L. & Interis, Matthew G. & Harri, Ardian, 2013. "Who Buys Food Directly from Producers in the Southeastern United States?," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 509-518, August.
    19. Ildikó Kovács & Marietta Balázsné Lendvai & Judit Beke, 2022. "The Importance of Food Attributes and Motivational Factors for Purchasing Local Food Products: Segmentation of Young Local Food Consumers in Hungary," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-14, March.
    20. Alina Butu & Ioan Sebastian Brumă & Lucian Tanasă & Steliana Rodino & Codrin Dinu Vasiliu & Sebastian Doboș & Marian Butu, 2020. "The Impact of COVID-19 Crisis upon the Consumer Buying Behavior of Fresh Vegetables Directly from Local Producers. Case Study: The Quarantined Area of Suceava County, Romania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-25, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:12:p:4958-:d:373024. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.