Abstract
The aim of this study is to identify the consumer perception of buying the organic foods online in Malaysia. Consumer perception is typically affected by the variables such as purchase intention, price, health consciousness, organic certification and labeling, consumer knowledge, availability, and environmental concern. This study attempts to identify the relationship and linearity between the dependent and independent variables. Survey questionnaire was targeted to 200 online consumers aged between 18 to 65 years old who buy organic foods. The results indicate a significant positive relationship between price, health consciousness, organic certification and labeling, consumer knowledge, availability, and environmental concern and the purchase of organic food. It shows that purchase intention is linearly related to price, health consciousness, availability, and environmental concern.
TopOnline Purchase Of Organic Food
The technology advancement particularly after the launch of various internet services and the widespread of using smart phones, it is easier for internet users to perform their online shopping. According to Internet World Stats (2015), internet users marked up to 3,366,261,156 which is 46.4% of the world population. Statistics shows that 40% of these internet users had bought products online via desktop, mobile, tablet or other online devices (Peyper, Liesl, 2015). Euromonitor International survey indicated that Malaysian online shoppers were sophisticated and spent an average of RM 2,461 per person. On top of that, the online shopping market in Malaysia was expected to grow at an accelerated pace from RM842 million in 2011 and to exceed RM1.9 billion by 2016. Today, 70% of Malaysians do online shopping at least once a month (Ahmad, Sharina & Rosli, Jamny, 2015). Marketing Magazine (2014) indicated that Malaysians ranked among the nation of world top online shoppers. Malaysian were more open to online shopping and ecommerce compared to other nations. eCommerceMILO (2014) surveyed 626 Malaysia online users, 91% of them had experienced online shopping with 49% of these online shoppers spent on food and beverages. This has created a business opportunity for marketers where interaction can be performed online, thus eliminating the traditional brick and mortar and effectively reducing the cost of business setup.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Organic Food: Organic food is food produced by methods that comply with the standards of organic farming.
Health Consciousness: Concerned about how healthy one's diet and lifestyle by consuming organic foods.
Consumer Behavior: Customers buy organic foods to satisfy their needs and wants. It refers to the actions that consumers taken and the underlying motives for those actions.
Environmental Concern: The worriedness about the quality of air, water and soil in the natural environment and the harmful effects of conventional farming being compared to organic farming.
Availability: The possibility that one can buy, get, or obtain organic foods.
Organic Certification and Labelling: A certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products.
Online Purchase: A form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser.
Consumer Knowledge: A consumer’s understanding of a product and this information could be used by consumers in the decision-making process.
Price: The amount of money that has to be paid to acquire an organic product.
Consumer Perception: Consumer's awareness or consciousness about organic foods. It is typically affected by environmental and health concerns, pricing, availability, knowledge, and certification.