Socio-demographic factors and online shopping for food and beverage: an analysis of Italian consumers

Understanding the determinants of users’ propensity to purchase goods online is urgent for firms in the food industry. Changes in technology, business models and market structure have been disrupting the whole retail experience, creating new winners and new losers. Answering to the changes is the real discriminating factor determining who will survive and who will fade away. The present paper aims at understanding how sociodemographic traits and characteristics influence consumers’ predispositions and propensity to buy online. More specifically, the paper aims at understanding whether there are any differences or similarities in online purchases of food and beverage items vis-à-vis the purchases of non-food items. We find that a variety of socio-demographic characteristics influence online buying behavior and do so, nonetheless, in nuanced ways. As far as food purchases are concerned, we find that males, aged 40-49 are more inclined to buy food and beverage online. While age and gender explain online shopping for food and beverage, other variables, such as education and place of residence, do play a role in explaining the propensity to buy online non-food items. Several indications related to the preferences of customers in terms of additional services are proffered throughout the paper.