IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/gjagec/343347.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

E-Commerce in German Agriculture: A Case Study Investigating Farmer Satisfaction Applying the Thinking Aloud Method

Author

Listed:
  • Schwering, Dorothee Schulze
  • Focke-Meermann, Lena
  • Spiller, Achim

Abstract

E-commerce in agriculture is gaining increasing attention, but market penetration is currently low, and companies are barely exploiting its full potential. Identifying and satisfying farmers’ expectations of e-commerce websites for farm inputs is crucial to reduce this opportunity loss. This paper presents a qualitative case study using the “thinking aloud” method, investigating the factors of an agricultural e-commerce site that need to be improved to increase customer satisfaction. The results reveal that farmers’ dissatisfaction with and reluctance to engage in agri-cultural e-commerce are linked to deficiencies in the store design. These deficiencies are especially apparent in the incongruent design of off- and online stores. Congruity is needed not only in terms of price but, more importantly, in terms of design (e.g., navigation, product order) and services. However, this is often lacking. High channel congruence improves trust in the online provider and keeps perceived transaction costs low. The study emphasizes the importance of customer centricity and a channel integration strategy in agricultural trade and provides indications of which elements lead to higher customer satisfaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Schwering, Dorothee Schulze & Focke-Meermann, Lena & Spiller, Achim, 2023. "E-Commerce in German Agriculture: A Case Study Investigating Farmer Satisfaction Applying the Thinking Aloud Method," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 72(02), January.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:gjagec:343347
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.343347
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/343347/files/E-Commerce%20in%20German%20Agriculture.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.343347?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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:ags:gjagec:343347. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iahubde.html .

    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.