FACTORS INFLUENCING CUSTOMERS' DECISION TO USE A GROCERY MOBILE APPLICATION IN METROPOLITAN BANGKOK: A CASE STUDY OF A PREMIUM SUPERMARKET. As mobile grocery shopping is gaining popularity worldwide, many retailers are now developing a mobile app as a new approach that has been introduced as a tool to create such an impact on customers. Tops supermarket is the largest supermarket chain in Thailand as the company is more customer focused to meet the wants and needs and hopefully exceed the expectations of its customers.
The research topic of this thematic paper is about the factors influencing the customer's decision to use the mobile application of Tops supermarket in Bangkok Metropolitan.
Research Questions
Tops mobile app to deliver a thriving Omni-channel experience to meet the wants and needs, and hopefully exceed expectations of its customers. However, mobile application usage is a major important factor in responding to a rapid change in consumer behavior in the 4.0 era.
Research Objectives
Research Scope
Expected Benefits
LITERATURE REVIEW
- Mobile Application
- Mobile Application Evolution
- Charateristics of Grocery Mobile Application
- General Information of Tops Mobile Application
- The Consumer
- Consumer Decision Making Processes
- Theory of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)
- Benefits of Online Grocery Shopping
- Summary
Apps should be rich in "user experience" (UX) and "user interface" (UI) so that shoppers can perform effortlessly while using the app for their online purchase. Besides UX, UI is about personality of the app like style, color, font, size and moods and tone. To make it easy and convenient for buyers to search and select their final products, the application should be designed to have categories, filters and sorting.
More importantly, the app should provide safe and secure online payment to gain customer trust. The app enables safe and secure shopping for long-term success among its customers. In order to be more stable and reliable in the eyes of customers, Tops usually updates the app to remind customers that the system continues to improve for a better experience.
In addition, system quality plays an important role in the continuous improvement of production quality, the main objective of which is to ensure that the application provides security of use, response time, availability and stable, which results in the best customer satisfaction. . Refer to UX and UI that customers who are experienced and familiar with the app are more confident to use and control the app they may be willing to tolerate a difficult interface to access functionality that helps them shop online. However, the complexity and lack of user-friendliness can be a hindrance to the use of the application, the developer of which should create a simple application in order to improve the usability and customer experience of the application that even new users can use it. easily.
The level of knowledge is not the same for every customer. Sometimes they need to get information about the app. The brand must also support and teach them “what the app is”, “how to install” or “how to use it”. In addition, complex and difficult infrastructures can be the cause of problems for customers who do not yet have knowledge of the app.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
Data Collection and Methodology
- Populations
- Sampling
- Data Collection
To ensure that the data collected is good enough and to achieve the objectives, the data collection will be collected during the interview conducted to explore the feeling, perception, attitude and behavior of customers towards the perceived usefulness and to investigate perceived ease of use when using the Tops app. The data collection methods are similar to interviews, using “interactive competence” to pay attention to the interviewees and be ready to open the stage to make them feel more comfortable while talking. The interviewer will introduce a mobile app and give a clear definition; especially the grocery app for respondents who have never had experience with it.
The opening questions will start based on the respondent's perception and attitude towards using the Tops app. The interviewer will briefly ask a few questions and encourage the interviewees to share their opinion and level of satisfaction with the application. In order to see their interaction with the Tops app and to explore their attitudes towards “how useful the app is” and “how easy the app is to use”, all participants will be asked to use the app for online grocery shopping, which the researcher will do on short. list 7 target items before you start shopping.
The shopping list contains a number of general categories that most customers purchase; fresh meat, strawberry, UHT milk, snack, soft drink, liquid detergent and shampoo. The researcher will also ask them to share their opinion and then ask whether they have used the app now, or whether this increases the likelihood that they will use it in the future. To study and evaluate the factors that influence customers to download and use the Tops mobile app, the researcher asked interviewees standing in a group of users who have experience with the app to think back to the specific moment when they app, and then ask in more detail about the context of that time.
Instrument
Do you think any sales promotion or exclusive offer could convince you to use Top's app. Do you have knowledge of Top's quality guarantees and services such as home delivery service and personal assistance service. And would you recommend your family and friends to shop at Tops via the app.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
- Demographic Information
- Users
- Non-Users
- Perceived Usefulness
- Subjective Norm
- Self-image
- Information Quality
- System Quality
- Service Quality
- Perceived Ease of Use
- Control Dimension (UX & UI)
- Learnability Dimension
- Benefits of Online Grocery Shopping
- Convenience
- Time Saving
- Promotions and Extra Offers
- Conclusion
All participants have Tops app on their mobile phones and grocery shop via the app. All users are requested to think about the first time they download Tops app, what motivated them to download the app. Most of the respondents trust in the brand, but they do not believe the app can improve the image or raise their status.
Four users and three non-users shared the same opinion about the organization of the application. Four users did not give up using the app because they already had experience with the app before. A female user, 32 years old, said: “It is quite difficult to shop at the first time as she did not know how to continue her shopping because the app did not provide back button.
I tried other ways of buying and now I've learned to use the functions of the app." On the other hand, all 6 non-users as new users responded that the app is not easy to use and that they do not want to use it in the future. As interview4 said, “I downloaded the Tops app because of the promotion and I had no knowledge of the app before.
A female user said "I saw Tops mobile app on brochure and I downloaded the app because I wanted to get The 1 Card points". However, users experienced with Tops application did not have a high level of system quality concern because they trust in the brand and its security system, while non-users have a lot of concern about the stable and response time of the application.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND LIMITATIONS
Recommendations
- Improve Customer’s Perception in Perceived Usefulness
- Provide Rich of UI and UX
- Create an Attractive Advertising
- Provide an Advance Step of Convenience
- Develop Omni channel Strategy
In response to the user actions, it could be better if the developer rearranges the interesting content or design of the app. To focus on maintaining trust, grocery retailers need to understand the elements that communicate trust to the consumer. To ensure maximum customer satisfaction, the company should create two-way communication channels in the app to make them feel special and scale when they face a problem, question and suggestion from the app.
For example, the application should provide chat function or 24 hour call center to support the customers. Refer to the findings that most respondents use a handful of mobile apps in daily life. According to the first phase in the customer decision process refers to needs and awareness that customers in this phase begin to know and are aware of the application.
By adapting to the culture while increasing enjoyment and being helpful to the customer, it was suggested that the app should allow the customer to share a shopping list with their family members. Tops could use big data to analyze the granular details of customer behavior and interest, which the marketing team can track through past purchases, recognize when customers are nearing a purchasing decision and drive the transaction to completion through preferred products and reward them with exclusive benefits or promotions via the app. Supermarkets should improve their customers' shopping experience by encouraging them to use the app to access product-specific content, such as ingredients and nutritional information, via QR codes placed on products in-store.
Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research
- Limitations
- Suggestions for Future Research
At the starting point, the physical store plays a key role in building awareness and engagement as a stage for personalized customer experiences. As interaction progresses and customers become interested in and seek closer relationships with the brand, the online grocery retailer grows in importance. Most respondents indicate they are more likely to shop brick-and-mortar than e-commerce via mobile app, but once they want in-store services available through their mobile devices.
This paper aimed to explore and focus with the group of millennials to study the factors that influence the customer's decision to use a mobile application for groceries, especially Top's supermarket. It is recommended that the manager conduct surveys of specific demographic profile of respondents that match the brand's goals and positioning. Furthermore, the use of other qualitative methods such as focus group is recommended to explore more in the customers' insights for the manager to come up with new ideas for a more solid development and marketing plan.
Finally, it will be more useful if the study can further clarify the link of mobile marketing and customer satisfaction with the influences on purchase intention, which mobile marketing could increase both customer experience and sales.
