Factors affecting consumers’ purchase intention for agriculture products omni-channel

Abstract

Agricultural retailers face serious challenge of losing consumers due to channel integration, it has become essential to provide an expected consistent and seamless omni-channel shopping experience in an omni-channel environment. Although previous literature has begun to focus on the consumer perspective of the omni-channel experience, little attention has been paid to the process of change from a single retail environment to omni-channel. By combining the research frameworks of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and the value-based adoption model (VAM), this study aims to identify the drivers of omni-channel consumer purchase intention in agriculture products retail. This article conducts a questionnaire survey on 620 samples in China. The results show that single-channel shopping cost, reference groups, positive online reviews, and single-channel perceived risk have a significant positive impact on the omni-channel purchase intention of agricultural products, and perceived value plays a mediating role. Moreover, contextual factors partially have a negative moderating effect. When consumers purchase agricultural products, the more suitable the online shopping environment is, the weaker the influence of single-channel shopping costs, reference groups and positive online reviews on consumers’ omni-channel purchase intention. These findings build on the existing literature on the omni-channel retail consumer experience and provide insights for fresh produce retailers to implement and evaluate an omni-channel integration strategy for agriculture products. The findings may shed lights on how to promote the healthy development of the omni-channel sales model of agricultural products.