Digital Transition by COVID-19 Pandemic? The German Food Online Retail

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a sharp increase in online trade. This article examines the impact of the pandemic on online grocery retail in Germany. Here we follow and refine the multi-level perspective by Geels, and examine to what extent and why the online grocery retail expanded during the pandemic. A particular focus is on the spatial expansion into rural areas. The study shows a general upswing in the grocery trade and disproportionately high growth in online grocery trade and identifies driving and limiting factors. While COVID-19 has opened a window of opportunity, our results indicate little transition of grocery to e-grocery. This finding can be explained by the sudden and temporary constellation at the level of the socio-technical regime during the pandemic. As a result, we argue for a rethinking the temporality of windows of opportunities and the related vulnerability of the innovations which need them.