Chapter: 1 Introduction

1 INTRODUCTION OF FMCG INDUSTRY

Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) goods are popularly named as consumer packaged
goods. Items in this category include all consumables (other than groceries/pulses) people
buy at regular intervals. The most common in the list are toilet soaps, detergents, shampoos,
toothpaste, shaving products, shoe polish, packaged foodstuff, and household accessories and
extends to certain electronic goods. These items are meant for daily of frequent consumption
and have a high return.

The Indian FMCG sector with a market size of US$14.8 billion is the fourth largest sector in
the economy. The FMCG market is set to double from USD 14.7 billion in 2008-09 to USD
30 billion in 2012. FMCG sector will witness more than 60 per cent growth in rural and semi-
urban India by 2010. Indian consumer goods market is expected to reach $400 billion by
2010.Hair care, household care, male grooming, female hygiene, and the chocolates and
confectionery categories are estimated to be the fastest growing segments. At present, urban
India accounts for 66% of total FMCG consumption, with rural India accounting for the
remaining 34%. However, rural India accounts for more than 40% consumption in major
FMCG categories such as personal care, fabric care, and hot beverages. In urban areas, home
and personal care category, including skin care, household care and feminine hygiene, will
keep growing at relatively attractive rates. Within the foods segment, it is estimated that
processed foods, bakery, and dairy are long-term growth categories in both rural and urban
areas. The growing incline of rural and semi-urban folks for FMCG products will be mainly
responsible for the growth in this sector, as manufacturers will have to deepen their
concentration for higher sales volumes.
Major Players in this sector include Hindustan Unilever Ltd., ITC (Indian Tobacco
Company), Nestlé India, GCMMF (AMUL), Dabur India, Asian Paints (India), Cadbury
India, Britannia Industries, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care, Marico Industries,
Nirma,Coca-Cola, Pepsi and others.As per the analysis by ASSOCHAM, Companies
Hindustan Unilever Ltd , Dabur India originates half of their sales from rural India. While
Colgate Palmolive India and Marico constitutes nearly 37% respectively, however Nestle
India Ltd and GSK Consumer drive 25 per cent of sales from rural India.

1.1 COMPANY PROFILE: ADANI WILMAR LIMITED

Adani Wilmar Limited (AWL) is a joint venture incorporated in January 1999 between Adani
Group- The leaders in private infrastructure and Wilmar International Limited - Singapore,
Asia's leading Agri business group. The Adani group was created with a vision of ‘Nation
Building’ by developing assets of national economic significance. Wilmar International
Limited - Singapore, Asia's leading Agri-business group & its business activities include oil
palm cultivation, oilseed crushing, edible oil refining, sugar milling and refining, specialty
fat,oleochemical, biodiesel and fertilizer manufacturing and grain processing. It has over 450
manufacturing plants and an extensive distribution network covering China, India, Indonesia
and some 50 other countries.

The joint venture kicked off with the commissioning of India's first port-based refinery at
Mundra, Gujarat and later on other such units were setup across other locations.
1.2 Capacity

Today, AWL owns refineries in 17 strategic locations across India, has 8 crushing units and
18 toll packing units. Cumulatively, this translates to a refining capacity of over 12000 tonnes
per day, seed crushing capacity of 7500 tonnes per day and packaging capacity of 9000
tonnes per day.

1.3 Distribution

AWL has the largest distribution network among all branded edible oil players in India, with
more than 96 stock points, 5000 distributors and *10% Retail Penetration which spans across
approx. 1 Million outlets all over India.

*Source Nielsen Retail Index

1.4 Leading the Way

At Adani Wilmar, we are committed towards working for a healthy growing India. We
believe that the future of a nation rests on its people. People, who don’t just dream, but
aspire. With our wide range of products we spread the goodness and health. We nourish the
dreams of our fellow Indians.

With a vision to be a global admired leader in integrated agri-business, we shall be known for
our scale of ambition, speed of execution and quality of operation, Adani Wilmar is poised to
lead the growth story of Indian Food Industry.
1.5 Brands

Fortune is the most prestigious brand in the Adani Wilmar portfolio. Fortune became the no.1
brand in the market within just 2 years of its launch and still continues to be a leader.
Reader’s Digest honoured Fortune as the Most Trusted brand for 6 years, most recently in
2015, and it was adjudged as a ‘The Economic Times Best Brands 2015’. Besides these it has
also won “Mint Strategy Award” in 2014 & 2015. Fortune has grown from strength to
strength and continues to deliver the ‘joy of eating’ to Indian households.

Adani Wilmar has a range of premium edible oils, vanaspati, packed basmati rice, pulses,
soya chunks and also the first national brand in besan. It also has a range of customized
specialty fats for institutional customers. The product portfolio of Adani Wilmar spans under
various brands such as - Fortune, King’s, Bullet, Raag, Avsar, Pilaf, Jubilee, A-Kote, Fryola,
Alpha and Aadhaar.

It has the largest portfolio of brands in the Indian edible oil industry. It goes to great lengths
to deliver its brand promise ‘For a healthy growing India’.

Following the success in India, AWL introduced branded Edible oil to Middle-East and is
now exporting its products to more than 19 countries in the Middle-East, South East Asia &
East Africa including Singapore, Australia & New Zealand
 “Connecting the direct Supply with the buyers while storing inventories on the
Cloud”

T K Kannan, CEO ofAdani Wilmar LTD says that to reduce the cost to their business
operation they applied the concept of cloud computing, where it connects the calcarean shops
with the buyers. It enables the business to reduce the inventory cost as all the inventories are
handled by the local vendor.

“Create a work - life balance”

T K Kannan, CEO of Adani Wilmar LTD states that the concept of online grocery shopping
creates the work-life balance in urban areas where the urban couples are busy in their work
culture and cannot give time towards their daily life needs.

Awards

 Super brands 2017 - 2018

 SKOCH Award to SuPoshan Project 2018
 Best Public Health Initiative - SuPoshan. Adani Wilmar Limted was bestowed with Silver
Rank by ACEF ASIAN LEADERSHIP AWARDS in 2018
 Fortune brand has been voted as the winner of Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand Award in Gold
category in 2018
 Adani Wilmar Limited recognised as one of the Top 100 companies by Great Place To Work
Institute in 2018
 Frost & Sullivan India F&B Innovative Product of the year Award to Fortune Vivo Oil in
2017
 P0rter Prize 2016 for Exploiting Trade Offs
 DuPont Diamond Finalist award in May 2016 for Best Packaging
 ET Best Corporate brands in 2016
 ASIA TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT EXCELLENCE AWARD - 2016 at Singapore
 Superbrands 2015 - 2016
 White Page International felicitated Adani Wilmar as one of Asia’s ‘Most Admired Brands
& Business Leaders’ 2015-16
 Fortune brand has been voted as the winner of Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand Award in Gold
category for the 6th time most recently in 2015
 Fortune gets the "Superbrand Award" – 2015
 Economic Times Fortune Oil- Promising ‘FMCG-Food Products’ Brand. - 2015
 IFC Mint The Mint-Institute for Competitiveness Strategy awards in Food and Beverage
category. - 2015
 INDIASTAR Awards-2015 National Awards for Excellence in Packaging i.e. INDIASTAR
Awards-2015 by World Packaging Organization
 Adani Wilmar Limited has won the IFC-Mint Strategy award in 'Food and Beverage'
category for consecutive years 2014 & 2015
 Economic Times awarded Fortune as Promising 'FMCG - Food Products" Brand
 Fortune gets the "Superbrand Award" - 2014
 The Economic Times Best Brands 2014 awarded ‘Fortune’ the title “No.1 in the FMCG –
Food Products – Edible Oil”
 The Economic Times Best Brands 2014 ranked ‘Fortune’ in the Top 200 brands listing for
2014.
 Globoil awarded Fortune Rice Bran Health Oil as 'Emerging Brand of the Year 2014'. - 2014
 Adani Wilmar Limited received Globoil Diamond award under 'Highest Importer of Edible
Oil' category. - 2014
 Adani Wilmar Limited received Globoil Gold award under 'Highest Exporter of Oil Meals'
category. - 2014
 Fortune's Ghar Ka Khana TV commercial was awarded 'The Longest Duration TV
Commercial' by Limca Book of Records - 2014
 Fortune was judged the 'No.1 Brand in Edible Oil Category' by Economic Times Best Brands
- 2014
 Fortune won 'Best New Launch' award by Aditya Birla Retail - 2014
 Fortune was awarded 'Readers Digest Trusted Brand of the Year' for the third consecutive
year from 2012 - 2014
 Fortune was listed in '100 Most Valuable Brands' of the year by KPMG - 2013
 Fortune adjudged 'Readers Digest Trusted Brand of the Year' - 2013
 Fortune was presented with 'The Master Brand Award' by the CMO Council and CMO Asia -
2012
 Fortune gets the 'Superbrand Award' - 2010
 Fortune was awarded 'Readers Digest Trusted Brand of the Year' for the fourth consecutive
year from 2006 - 2009
 Fortune was judged 'The Fastest Growing Oil Brand' by Globoil - 2006

1.6 Indian Players in Online Grocery Shopping

1.6.1 Big basket

Big basket is the largest online grocery supermarket in India. It was launched in 2011, quite
about the time when e-commerce was in its nascent stage in the country. Big basket was
founded by Hari Menon, VS Sudhakar, V S Ramesh, Vipul Parekh and Abhinay Choudhary.
Big basket is headquartered in Bengaluru and delivers to various cities in India such as
Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Delhi, Noida, Mysore, Coimbatore, Vijayawada-
Guntur, Kolkata, Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar, Lucknow-Kanpur, Gurgaon, Vadodara,
Visakhapatnam, Surat, Nagpur, Patna, Indore and Chandigarh Trinity city limits.
Big basket was launched at a time when India's busy workforce in cities was finding
it difficult to allocate time to buy groceries and home essentials. Big basket gave them the
flexibility to place their order anytime and get the things delivered at their preferred time. Big
basket offers groceries and food supplies in various categories such as fruits & vegetables,
food grains, oil, masalas, bakery items, beverages, branded foods, personal care products,
household supplies, eggs, meat, fish, etc. Big basket currently offers more than 18,000
products across various categories and features more than 1000 brands in its catalogue. Big
basket comes with the promise of lowest rates and prompt delivery services.
History:

Big basket was launched in 2011, but its journey had begun much earlier. It was in the year
1999 that a group of people comprising V S Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, Abhinay
Choudhary and V S Ramesh launched their online retail business called Foumart. The
business did quite well, and later physical retail malls called Fibral were launched in various
locations in South India. The business was eventually sold to the Aditya Birla Group and now
it is known popularly as 'More' retail chain. However, the founders were itching to start
something new and with their experience in retail business, they came together once again to
launch Big basket in 2011. Big basket currently has revenue of around $3.2 million and
approximately 4,000 employees.

Funding:

Big basket has received funding worth around $526 million. The investors include Alibaba
Group, Abraaj Group, Ascent Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Brand Capital, Helion
Venture Partners, ICICI Venture, IFC Venture Capital Group, Lion Rock Capital, Paytm
Mall, Sands Capital Management, Sands Capital Ventures, Trifecta Capital and Zodiac
Capital. There are talks about additional funding of around $200 million, post which, the
company would be valued at around $900 million.

Acquisitions:

Big basket acquired Deliver in June 2015 for an undisclosed amount. Deliver was also an
online grocery store and its specialty was using local stores to deliver groceries to people.
Now, all business assets of Deliver have been merged with Big basket.
Competition:

Big basket competes with various other start-ups in the online grocery segment. Competitors
include Gofers, Zornow, Pepper tap, Natures basket, Airmanship, etc. Various city-specific
online retail stores have also come up, which are giving tough competition to Big basket.
Even bigger e-commerce players such as Amazon India and Snapdeal have also started
selling groceries online, which is creating new challenges for Big basket.

About the Founders:

Hari Menon is the CEO of Big basket. He is an alumnus of BITS Palani. V S Sudhakar is a
cofounder and deals with senior management decisions at the organizational level. Vipul
Parekh is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore and heads the Finance & Marketing department.
Abhinay Choudhary is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and he heads the new initiatives at Big
basket. V S Ramesh is an engineering graduate from Karnataka University and he heads
logistics and supply chain at Big basket.
1.6.2 GROFERS INDIA PVT LTD

Gofers are India’s largest low-price online supermarket in the grocery space. The company
uses its in-house technology platform to manage a network of over 5,000 partner stores that
enable the company to run a fast and lean supply chain – from manufacturers straight to
customers in 16 cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad,
Pune, Gurgaon, Noida, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Rohtak, Bhiwandi & Meerut.
Gofers utilize its efficient supply chain to deliver over 25 million products to customers every
month. Most of these products belong to the company’s 8 in house brands namely Gofers
Happy Day, Gofers Happy Home, Gofers Mothers choice, and Gofers Happy Baby, G Fresh,
Orange and budget brands save more and Have more.
It is hereby clarified that Gofers India Private Limited does not have any relation with the
mark ‘GROFFR’, which (we are given to understand) is used by Redstone Consultancy
Services Pvt Ltd for its real estate services business, which is not related to Gofers India
Private Limited in any manner.

Gofers India Private Limited is a Private incorporated on 26 May 2015. It is classified as

Subsidiary of Foreign Company and is registered at Registrar of Companies, Delhi. Its
authorized share capital is Rs. 1,000,000 and its paid-up capital is Rs. 230,820. It is involved
in Legal, accounting, book-keeping and auditing activities; tax consultancy; market research
and public opinion polling; business and management consultancy

Gofers India Private Limited's Annual General Meeting (AGM) was last held on 29
December 2018 and as per records from Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), its balance
sheet was last filed on 31 March 2018.

Directors of Gofers India Private Limited are AL binder Singh Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar.
1.6.3 ZOPNOW

Zopnow.com an online retail store exclusively aims to cater grocery FMCG need of people
launched its service in Bangalore.

Zornow with punchline “Be Lazy, Buy Easy” plans to deliver grocery items at consumer’s
doorstep in less than 3 hours or at a predefined time specified by the customer.

However, currently Zornow’s is offering 1501 products to some selected areas of south
Bangalore. Zap now is founded by serial entrepreneurB.K BirlaandMukesh Singh,erstwhile
CTO,Makemytrip. According to company website, it wants to build a customer centric online
store that will leverage the hybrid model of online, call centre, mobile application and
physical touch.Zopnow claims to deliver great customer experience by providing customers,
a convenient way to shop and in the process cut down the time at the checkout counter, traffic
andparking.
At present Zornow offers cash on delivery (COD) option and are in the process of adding
card, debit card, Sodexho and Ticket Restaurant vouchers, however Sodexho and Ticket
Restaurant vouchers would be applicable only for food items. It offers free shipment for
minimum order value of INR 500 and above, however shipping cost of INR 30 is added to all
shipment below INR 500.

1.6.4 AMAZON
How Amazon Started

Amazon is a Fortune 500 e-commerce company based in Seattle, Wash. It has the distinction
of being one of the first large companies to sell goods over the Internet. In 1994, Jeff Bezos
founded Amazon, which launched the following year. If you're of anage, you likely
remember that Amazon started out as an online bookstore and then quickly diversified by
adding other items, including DVDs, music, video games, electronics, and clothing.

In 1999, just five years after he started Amazon, Jeff Bezos was named Time
magazine's "Person of the Year." He received this honour largely because of the company's
success in popularizing online shopping.

Amazon.com Corporate Culture

Amazon.com considers itself a completely customer-centric company. In fact, it has

described itself as "customer-obsessed." The company really believes that if it doesn't listen
to customers, it will fail. Amazon has stated that it wants to take advantage of any
opportunity that presents itself to the company during a time of unprecedented technological
revolution.
Amazon not only believes in putting customers first but also in ownership from its
team. "Ownership matters when you're building a great company," the company has
said. "Owners think long-term, plead passionately for their projects and ideas and are
empowered to respectfully challenge decisions."
Getting a job at Amazon may not be easy (especially since the company prides itself on its
high hiring bar). When making a hiring decision, management asks, "Will I admire this
person? Will I learn from this person? Is this person a superstar?"
While tech companies such as Google Inc. are known for the perks it gives employees,
Amazon operates differently. The company believes that frugality breeds resourcefulness
and self-sufficiency.
 Chapter: 2 Review Of Literature

"India is among the fastest-growing markets and has been identified as one of the
significant potential markets for the company,"

“E - commerce: A boon for the current economic downturn”

First Data Corporation and ICICI Merchant Services, has laid down some facts that e-
commerce market in India had clocked close to Rs 50,000 cores by the end of 2011.Even
though there are less than 10 million internet users who are engaging in e-commerce
activities, there are about 150 million internet users in India or around 75 million households
that are ready for e-commerce. With entry and operational costs being comparatively low
than the other countries like US, the second half of 2011 and the beginning of the current
calendar have seen the launch of a good number of new e-commerce sites spanning across a
variety of businesses
–

women’s fashion, men’s fashion, shoes, followed by accessories, groceries, sports, toys,
home
furnishings, jewellery, automotive, bicycles, electronics and electrical equipment etc.

Reduction in operational cost as the entire business can be moved online, the need for
physical stores has become obsolete. Less infrastructural investment and associated labour
costs drives up the profit margin.

It is far easier and quicker to compare prices of goods online, equipping the customer with
the information to decide the right price or terms for themselves. With services like COD,
customers can trust the process of going online and purchasing.
Market penetration also becomes far more achievable with e-commerce; it is possible for a
merchant in Mumbai to extend his reach to north-eastern cities or even rural villages that are
now connected by the online network.

E-commerce facilitates shopping anytime, anywhere and for almost anything desired. Busy
consumers prefer this to the restrictions of when a mall/shop is open and the need to
physically travel to a shop. Online business takes shopping a step further by taking itself to
the customer creating conveniences of shopping anywhere and at any time.

In India, with the increasing propensity of social media, businesses have now begun to
engage their customers on social networking portals such as Facebook. These are likely tube
rapidly developing marketing channels for the future.

“These businesses are difficult to turn into profitable ventures due to the low margins and the
logistics costs involved.”

“It is a difficult venture and these challenges make investors more cautious while evaluating
such initiatives”

Singhal of SAIF Partners, explains that the it is difficult for the investor to invest in these
types of business where the market is extremely fragmented.

Such a venture can only survive on repeat purchases and that’s what one needs to target.
If accompany knows what it needs to stock, how much it needs to stock and where it needs to
deliver, the business will become simpler to manage and run.
The firm needs to find a strong value proposition and target market to survive the cut-throat
competition the solution to the above problem stated can be that to survive in the market the
business should target the satisfied consumer to create repeat purchases.

Also, inventory management should be applied to these organizations it will enable them to
what it needs to stock, how much it needs to stock and where it needs to deliver, this will
allow to operate its business operation smoothly.

Internet is changing the way consumers shop and buy goods and services and has rapidly
evolved into a global phenomenon. Many companies have started using the Internet with the
aim of cutting marketing costs, thereby reducing the price of their products and services to
stay ahead in highly competitive markets.

Companies also use the Internet to convey communicates and disseminate information, to sell
the product, to take feedback and to conduct satisfaction surveys with customers. Customers
use the Internet not only to buy the product online, but also to compare prices, product
features and after sale service facilities the will receive if they purchase the product from a
store. Many experts are optimistic about the prospect of online business.

In addition to the tremendous potential of the E-commerce market, the Internet provides a
unique opportunity for companies to more efficiently reach existing and potential customers.

Although most of the revenue of online transactions comes from business-to-business

commerce, the practitioners of business-to-consumer commerce should not lose confidence.
It has been more than a decade since business-to-consumer E-commerce first evolved.
Scholars and practitioners of electronic commerce constantly strive to gain an improved
insight into consumer behaviour in cyberspace.

Along with the development of E-retailing, researchers continue to explain E-consumers

behaviour from different perspectives. Many of their studies have posited new emergent
factors or assumptions which are based on the traditional models of consumer behaviour, and
then examine their validity in the Internet context.
2.1 Models of E-commerce

Business-to-Business (B2B):

B2B e-commerce is simply defined as e-commerce between companies. This is the type of e-
commerce that deals with relationships between and among businesses. About 80% of e-
commerce is of this type, and most experts predict that B2B ecommerce will continue to
grow faster than the B2C segment. E.g.: indiamart.com, e Indiabusiness.com,
tradeindia. comets.

Business-to-consumer (B2C):

Business-to-consumer e-commerce, or commerce between companies and consumers,

involves customers gathering information; purchasing physical goods (i.e., tangibles such as
books or consumer products) or information goods (or goods of electronic material or
digitized content, such as software, or e-books); and, for information goods, receiving
products over an electronic network. It is the second largest and the earliest form of e-
commerce. Its origins can be traced to online retailing (or e-tailing). Thus, the more common
B2C business models are the online retailing companies such as flipkart.com Amazon.com,
snapdeal.com etc
Business-to-Government (B2G):

Business-to-government e-commerce or B2G is generally defined as commerce between

companies and the public sector. It refers to the use of the Internet for public procurement,
licensing procedures, and other government-related operations. This kind of e-commerce has
two features: first, the public sector assumes a pilot/leading role in establishing e-commerce;
and second, it is assumed that the public sector has the greatest need for making its
procurement system more effective. Web-based purchasing policies increase the transparency
of the procurement process (and reduce the risk of irregularities). To date, however, the size
of the B2G ecommerce market as a component of total e-commerce is insignificant, as
government e-procurement systems remain undeveloped.

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C):

Consumer-to-consumer e-commerce or C2C is simply commerce between private individuals

or consumers. This type of e-commerce is characterized by the growth of electronic
marketplaces and online auctions, particularly in vertical industries where firms/businesses
can bid for what they want from among multiple suppliers. It perhaps has the greatest
potential for developing new markets. Online auction site eBay, Yahoo! Auctions are a
couple of examples of C2C websites.

2.2 Online Shopping in India

The Indian economy is slated to grow by upward of 6 % annually in the next few years which
is among the highest rates of any big emerging economy. And quite a lot of this growth
would be on the back of domestic consumption of goods and services. E-commerce is
emerging as a great level given that organized retail is still not ubiquitous across the length
and breadth of the country with large retail chains making up less than 10%of the market.
E-commerce is helping people in smaller towns in India access quality products and services
liar to what people in the larger cities have access to. It’s being forecast that close to 60%
of online shoppers would come from beyond the top eight large cities by end of this year.

Increasing internet penetration has helped to expand the potential customer pool. Internet
penetration is only about 10% (or about 121 million users) as against about 81% in the US
and 36% in China. However, this number continues to rise at a consistent pace because
of falling prices for broadband connections.

Indians are also increasingly taking to mobile devices for not only search but shopping as
well. The number of smartphone users is rapidly increasing in India and with 4G services
about to take off it’s expected to get even more people going online. There are currently
about 900 million mobile subscribers and this number is expected to touch 1.2 billion
by2015. Of these about 27 million are estimated to be active mobile internet users. More
importantly, 20% users indicated intent to buy products through their mobile phones as
against the current 4% and this number is expected to only increase in the next two to three
years.

Innovation is helping e-commerce companies break the inertia for online shopping by
offering benefits to customers not traditionally available in a brick and mortar store. Business
models include no question asked return policies ranging from 7 days to 30 days,
free product deliveries and the industry dynamics changing “cash on delivery” model. The
last innovation has really help unlock the potential as people can now order products and pay
when they get physical delivery of the product.

This has been a tremendous success because Indians are still reluctant to give them

credit/debit card details online and want to have the psychological comfort that they would
get the product once payment has been made. These innovations have led to further
innovations downstream as ancillary businesses are developing to support these initiatives.
Some companies have begun to develop support mechanisms for the entire cash on delivery
model and are trying to reach the far-flung corners of India, including in the interiors where
traditional logistics companies are still not completely present.
The logistics companies are also shoring up their act and have started to build specific
verticals and expertise to address the requirements of e-commerce companies.

2.3 Online Grocery Shopping

Proving that no sector of the retail market is safe from the online shopping revolution, it is
now possible for the humble hometown grocery store to become digitized and available on
your smartphone, tablet, or computer. Just think: no more long checkout lines, counting the
number of items to see if you qualify for the Express Lane, forgetting your grocery list at
home, or carrying heavy bags up your front steps. Online grocery shopping is dramatically
changing the consumer's relationship with the food market and making a service that may
have once felt luxurious into an everyday convenience.

2.4 Ordering Food Online

An online grocery store is a website that allows users to purchase food over the Internet tube
delivered to the person later. Ordering food on the Internet is like ordering any other product-
-the desired food items can be searched for specifically, or one can browse through listings of
products or sections, like sections one might walk through at an actual grocery store. The
products offered by an online grocery store are identical to abnormal grocery store.

When one has finished shopping, checkout is made with a credit card, and the buyer must
specify certain hours that he will be available to receive the food for delivery. Since Internet
groceries must deliver the food to the customers, they typically pay a fee for delivery based
on the amount of food they buy.
2.5 Benefits of Online Grocery Shopping

The primary benefit of online grocery shopping is convenience. By ordering online, one can
quickly search for the products she needs and order them without having to physically
walk through expansive aisles. It also saves travel expenses and time going to the grocery
store. Considering the wide availability of the Internet, it also means grocery shopping can be
done from remote locations or in the middle of doing other tasks. For instance, using an
online grocery store can allow a person to do all her grocery shopping during her lunch break
at work. It is also very useful for those without a car or who may be physically unable to
move around easily, since the food is delivered right to their doors.

The use of online-based grocery stores is increasing in popularity as more and more people
become comfortable with using the Internet to make purchases.

2.6 Disadvantages of Online Grocery Shopping

Perhaps the largest disadvantages of shopping online are that it costs extra money, since food
must be delivered, and that the food ordered is not obtained immediately. If someone were
making a certain recipe and discovered he needed an additional ingredient, he would
probably not be able to order it online and get it quickly enough to finish his dish.

In the same way, it forces a person to plan his food buying in advance of when he will need
it--if delivery will take a day or two, a person needs to plan to have an extra day or two
of essential foods available before he runs out. Another disadvantage is that online shopping
forces the customer to be home during a certain period to collect the food when it is
delivered. Also, online grocery stores will often only cover specific delivery areas.
 CHAPTER: 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

3.1 RESEARCH PROBLEM

Online Grocery Retailing is slowly developing and gaining its importance in the field of E-
Retailing. But the online grocery retailing has not penetrated the minds of customers very
successfully as expected. Therefore to identify the gap, the research title was developed and
the survey was done with the objectives to know the level of awareness of the customers have
towards Online Grocery Retailers, and further to know the various difficulties faced by
customers in the process of online grocery purchase.

Some of the major findings are 32% of respondents strongly agree that, the online grocery
purchase is a complicated process, 37% of the respondents agree that, they face difficulties in
returning the products, 34% of the respondents strongly agree that there is a lack of security
in the process of online grocery purchase. Finally the study was concluded stating that there
are certain problems faced by customers in online grocery purchase, if these problems are
addressed the online grocery retailing will soon be very successful than traditional grocery
retailing.

1 MEANING OF RETAILER

He word Retailer has been derived from the French word “Retail” which means to sell in
small quantities, rather than in gross. A retailer is a person who purchases a variety of goods
in small quantities from different wholesaler and sells them to the ultimate consumer. He is
the Last link in the chain of distribution from the producer to the consumer.
 I. RETAILING

Retailing consists of business activities involved in selling goods and services to

consumers for their personal or household use. Retailing is the final stage in
distribution process. With the popularity of internet, retailing is becoming popular
using web site and a new form of e-tailing is also developing

II. ONLINE GROCERY RETAILING

Online Grocer refers to a grocery store that allows private individuals and
businesses to purchase groceries and grocery products online. There is usually a
delivery charge for this

3.2 Research Objectives:

 To study attitude of customers towards online shopping.

 To find out the preferences of the consumer regarding the attributes of online
shopping website.
 To identify the issues faced by the user while online shopping.
 To determine the parameters for choosing the shopping centre for purchase of
grocery items.
 To determine whether online grocery shopping will be beneficial and on what
factors.
3.3 Scope of the research:

 To determine which factor influences the consumer to go for online shopping.

 To find out which feature of the website attracts the user to purchase the
product from the online shopping website.

 To find out the weather grocery online shopping is beneficial for the user.

 To analyse which factors, influence the user to buy online grocer

3.4 Limitations:

 The first limitation caused during the market research was to find out the respondent
who shop online and are web savvy.

 The second limitation caused during the research was searching the women
respondents who shop grocery products along with the experience of online shopping.

 Other limitation caused in the market research was that the research will only study
the consumer perception towards online grocery shopping and not the dealers,
wholesalers orretailers’

 perception towards online shopping which acts as an agent to the

 online retail industry to support its business operations.
3.5 Descriptive research design

After completion of exploratory research, descriptive-single cross sectional research design

was used to make the study conclusive. Descriptive research design helps to identify core
performing and underperforming areas of marketing department. Single cross sectional
design, where, only one sample of respondent is drawn from the target population and
information is obtained from the sample only once was used in this research. To gain specific
information required to achieve research objectives primary data were collected through
survey of employees of marketing department through structured questionnaire.
Questionnaire was designed using information collected through qualitative and quantitative
exploratory research.

In descriptive research design working pattern of employees of marketing department was

observed. Unstructured observation of employees of marketing department was done to
identify their working style and problems which they usually faced.

3.6 SCALING TECHNIQUE

In structured questionnaire nominal and ordinal scales are used in several questions. Dichotomous and
multiple choice questions were also used in this questionnaire.

Five - point linker scale measured the level of likeness of respondents towards several statements of
various operations in marketing department.

The sources of data used in this project report are both primary and secondary Data

1. Primary data

Primary data consists of original information gathered from sample size of

96 Respondents residing in Ahmadabad, India.
 2. Secondary data

Secondary data consists of information that already exists and that was
Collected in the past for some other purposes.

3.7 DATA ANALYSIS

Descriptive statistics of survey

Figure :
 Figure :

Figure :
 Figure :

Figure :

3.8 USED FOR DATA ANALYSIS

SPSS(IBM)

 Parameters of Interests:

The major parameter of interest is the subgroup of people who are working professional
and web savvy having an experience in online shopping. The two others
subsidiary parameters of interest are:

 The respondent should also have an experience grocery shopping.

 And the female respondent who have an online shopping experience.

 Chapter:4 Findings, Managerial Implications, Conclusions and Scope of
the further research

4.1 CONCLUSION

Online shopping is a new experience and has greatly impacted the lives of consumers
in its short time of existence. It is expected to grow constantly in years to come with
advancements in technology. Online shopping has made consumers more effective and
efficient in their shopping behaviour and has driven businesses to a new level, forcing many
to make the necessary adjustments and changes to reach the new market of knowledgeable
consumers. The results of this survey underscore the need for businesses to take the online
market seriously.
The survey conducted revealed a positive attitude and behaviour toward online
shopping even by those consumers who still like traditional stores. These consumers are
mostly in low and high age groups. Those consumer groups have time to spend in traditional
stores and malls and value the offline shopping experience for social reasons, such as meeting
with friends. These consumers appear to be more knowledgeable by gathering information
online and then purchase it from traditional stores. Rapid growth of e-commerce has resulted
in a E-transformation in the global retail infrastructure.

Internet has emerged as a cost effective means of doing business. Despite being
faced with numerous bottlenecks, Thanks to rising internet and higher incomes and more
savvy population. Secured online payments, better to Electronic Stores, return policies and
exciting discounts could help the Perceptions of Shopping Benefits. Considering the
demographic profiles of online users; gender, age and education have significant association
to web shopping in the current Indian scenario. Online users are aware of the serviceable and
229 pleasure-seeking benefits of online shopping, they are reluctant to actually utilize internet
for shopping purpose. The overall results prove that the respondents have perceived online
shopping in a positive manner.
 This clearly justifies the project growth of online shopping in the country. However,
the frequency of online shopping is relatively less in the country. Online shopping
organizations can use the relevant variables and factors, identified from the study, to
formulate their strategies and plans in the country. The organizations can prioritize the
consumer implicit and explicit requirements in online shopping environment. The results can
also be used by various organizations to identify their target customer segments. The results
of the study can be utilized by practitioners in relooking or revamping their strategies for
online shopping.

Online websites should pay more attention to the female segments as results prove
that females shop more in online shopping as compared to men. So companies should devise
the policies and strategies to attract more number of people in this segment in future also.
With the advances in technology, more business opportunities will be discovered by
companies. Electronic commerce will become an important part of the business in companies.
Better understandings of consumer online shopping behaviour will help companies in getting
more online consumers and increasing their e-business revenues. At the same time, as
realized the benefits from E-commerce, consumers are more willing to make purchases
online.

With the popularity of Internet, the number of Internet users will continue to grow
and more Internet users will become online consumers, even regular online buyers. However,
the evolvement of E-commerce will bring new problems. The changes in business operation,
business environment, and economic condition etc. will affect consumer online shopping
behaviour. Therefore, continuous efforts have to be devoted to studying consumer online
shopping behaviour in a dynamic way. With the knowledge of consumer online shopping
behaviour, it is believed that E-commerce will continue to grow and it will become not only
an important business revenues channel, but also a part of people‘s daily life. This is one of
the important studies on online shopping in Indian context because it has included people
from diverse backgrounds from different cities in India
 4.2 IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

The present study has brought new dimensions and ideas to understand the online
consumer behaviour and increase the market potential of online shopping in India. The
implications of this study has indicated that for future studies, the other areas of the research
could be done on the the comparative study of male and females online consumers and
identifying the online risk reduction factors so as to bring more new insights related to the
online shopping buying behaviour. Future studies can extend the results of this study for
investigating the online consumer buying behaviour that will help companies in relooking
and revamping their strategies for online shopping