Online Food Retailing: Is Market Segmentation The Key To Success?

Abstract

The online grocery business was one of many e-commerce opportunities from the late 1990s that was full of promise and resulted in disappointment. Based on a review of current literature and telephone surveys with managers from a number of the top 10 retail grocers in the United States, the importance of market segmentation emerges. Technology is less of an issue than several years ago. The reality of the online grocery business as a niche market has sunk in.  Enormous data warehouses with customer data are now ready to be analyzed. Market segmentation is now both possible and critical for the near future to identify how to define and implement a profitable online grocery presence.