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Online Grocery Shopping: Exploring the Influence of Income, Internet Access, and Food Prices

Author

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  • Michael Olumekor

    (Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, 620014 Yekaterinburg, Russia)

  • Harman Preet Singh

    (Department of Management and Information Systems, College of Business Administration, University of Ha’il, P.O. Box 2440, Ha’il 81451, Saudi Arabia)

  • Ibrahim Abdullah Alhamad

    (Department of Management and Information Systems, College of Business Administration, University of Ha’il, P.O. Box 2440, Ha’il 81451, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

Online grocery shopping has grown rapidly in recent years. It has been promoted as a way to overcome the systemic inequalities in food access and increase sustainable food practices. A growing body of studies has highlighted the impact of income, food prices, and internet access/connection on shaping people’s behavior in buying groceries online. However, there is a dearth of prior studies that have examined the impact of these three factors at the macro/meso level. Therefore, this paper presents an analysis of these factors from a sample of 16 Russian regions with a combined population size of more than 44 million people. We used a fixed effects linear regression model to analyze panel data on median income, mobile internet connection, food price index, and online grocery sales. Our results show the significant impact of income and imply that while online grocery shopping holds huge promise for overcoming unequal access to food and achieving sustainability, entrenched challenges such as poverty and income inequality might be difficult to shake off.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Olumekor & Harman Preet Singh & Ibrahim Abdullah Alhamad, 2024. "Online Grocery Shopping: Exploring the Influence of Income, Internet Access, and Food Prices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-17, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:4:p:1545-:d:1337684
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    References listed on IDEAS

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