Abstract
This study aims to explore the impact of category-specific attributes in determining the intensity of grocery shopping realized within the online channel. Using real sales data provided by Circana, we examined online purchases in each grocery category over the entire 2017 to 2022 timespan, and relying on Shopping Utility Maximization theory, we uncovered which category attributes influence e-commerce volumes sales. In particular, the influence of category-specific heuristics regarding the "convenience" offering, namely variety, perishability, bulkiness, and expensiveness in affecting online shopping is deepened. Based on the result of the statistical analyses, we obtained significant results regarding: (i) higher online purchases of bulky products; (ii) lower online purchases of perishable goods and of channel expensive ones. While overall variety of items and product expensiveness were not found as significant category-specific drivers/barriers of online grocery shopping.