Online Shopping Adoption in Retail Fast Moving Consumer Goods Sector for Sales Growth - Case of Ok Zimbabwe Limited

Abstract

The study aimed to evaluate the influence of online shopping and sales growth at OK Zimbabwe Limited. The study was inspired by the shifting consumer behaviour as consumers patronise informal retail markets contributing to a marked decline in patronage of formal retail chain stores, reducing their market share. The study objectives were to be shaped by its unified theory of acceptance and usage of technology framing to evaluate the performance expectancy of online shopping, effort expectancy of online shopping, social influence and facilitating conditions of online shopping on the sales growth of OK Zimbabwe Limited. A positivist philosophy and an explanatory research design guided the study. A sample of 377 was collected from a cross section of OK Zimbabwe Limited using the customer count approach. Descriptive and a multi-regression analytical approach was done using SPSS 25. The research results suggested that the performance expectancy of online shopping, effort expectancy of online shopping, social influence and facilitating conditions of online shopping were statistical insignificant to influence sales growth in the retail sector. These sentiments arise from the customer inclination towards the brick-and-mortar retail model as opposed to the online shopping usage, as such the sales growth of OK Zimbabwe Limited is unlikely to improve based on the exclusive reliance on the online shopping. Therefore, study concluded that online shopping towards OK Zimbabwe Limited is shaped by online trust, returns policy, cybersecurity risks and competitor offerings. It was recommended that to leverage celebrity endorsement, reinforce the returns policy and provide assurance of cybersecurity risks research objective enhance the contribution of online shopping to sales growths.