Online Grocery Shopping at Multichannel Supermarkets: The Impact of Retailer Brand Equity

ABSTRACT Online shopping for food products is quickly accelerating worldwide, particularly following the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Most e-grocers are multichannel supermarkets that have developed the online channel. This paper aims to investigate the intention to purchase at the online channel of a multichannel supermarket as a function of retailer brand equity and technology acceptance model (TAM)-based variables. The model was tested through structural equation modeling using EQS. Results based on a survey answered by 154 customers of a leading multichannel supermarket in Germany show that variables defining retailer brand equity, i.e., retailer awareness, retailer associations, retailer perceived quality, and retailer loyalty contribute, together with perceived usefulness, to explain intentions to shop online at multichannel supermarkets.