Understanding Heterogeneity in Intended Frequency of Online Grocery Shopping Across Life Stages and Lifestyle

Abstract

Emerging technologies and access to the internet have been gradually shaping daily activities and travel patterns over the last two decades. Pandemic-induced disruption accelerated the adoption of these technologies by normalizing tele-activities other than teleworking, such as online grocery shopping. Understanding the shift in travel patterns with this change is important for multiple reasons: land use planning for sustainable grocery shopping outcomes, travel impact assessment, and resilient supply chain planning. In this paper, we used a stated preference survey dataset to understand (i) how the intended frequency of online grocery shopping varies across people, (ii) how their other day-to-day lifestyle activities influence online grocery shopping frequency, and (iii) what role does their residential built environment play in online grocery shopping frequency. We performed Latent Class Analysis to classify people into different classes based on heterogeneity in their lifestyle, which we defined as a combination of their social proclivity, liking for outdoor activities, technology friendliness, and pro-environment choices. We then modeled the intended frequency of online grocery shopping across the latent classes controlling for residential built environment characteristics, life stage, and socioeconomic characteristics of class members. Our results indicate that lifestyle characteristics, life stage, and residential built environment strongly influence online grocery shopping frequency. In fact, life stage significantly influences online grocery shopping frequency, irrespective of lifestyle characteristics. Further, having mixed land use at the residential location can motivate people to do in-person grocery shopping using active modes even when their lifestyle characteristics are not necessarily aligned with eco-friendly living.