Could Food Delivery Involve Certified Quality Products? An Innovative Case Study during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in Italy

Abstract

This study evaluates the feasibility of a new food delivery service involving only food products with quality certification. In particular, through an ad hoc survey, it evaluates the influence of consumers’ personal characteristics and choice motives on joining this innovative service and the willingness to pay of the respondents. A survey was completely anonymously and voluntarily administered during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. A total of 630 answers were collected. Logit and ordinal logit regression were carried out to analyze data. Women and respondents who have more leisure time are more likely to join the service. The analysis of choice motives suggests that consumers more concerned with food quality, and those devoting a higher weekly budget to buying groceries are more likely to be interested in the proposed service. Individuals willing to buy groceries based on certifications and organoleptic properties and people who habitually consume one to five meals outside were more likely to be willing to increase their weekly budget to join the service. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the influence of personal characteristics and choice motives on an innovative food delivery service involving only certified quality products in Italy.

1. Introduction

The development and diffusion of e-commerce proved to be of utmost importance during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, enabling people to benefit from a great number of services while staying at home [1,2]. The use of e-commerce has grown exponentially all over the world, especially in the food sector [3,4,5], and it is also spreading in Italy, as reported by the eCommerce B2c Observatory of the School of Management of the Polytechnic of Milan and the Italian Electronic Commerce Consortium. In 2020, online purchases in the food and grocery sector were worth 2.5 billion euros in Italy, with a growth rate of 55% compared to the previous year (almost one billion more in absolute value). In the same period, spending on food delivery services in Italy increased by 19% (706 million euros), with a peak of 63% concerning niche products (589 million euros) [6]. These data suggest that the restrictive measures related to the prevention of the spread of the virus may have led to a change in the habits of Italian consumers [7].

In this context, the present study aims to evaluate the interest of Italian consumers in a food delivery service that provides certified quality products and their willingness to pay for this service [8,9,10,11]. The research was conducted by administering an ad hoc survey to 630 respondents and processing the data obtained via multivariate statistical analysis.

In line with the scientific literature on consumer behaviour towards food e-commerce and food delivery [12,13,14], this study includes the analysis of six CMs: convenience (proxied by convenience store purchases), perceptions of quality, habit of eating out, weekly food budget, purchase motivations, and the person who buys food in the household on the variables of interest [15].

This study focuses on Italian consumers, given the great attention they pay to their food habits, and, therefore, they could be particularly interested in a food delivery service that offers certified quality products. A recent study has shown that Italians are one of the populations in the world who spend the most time eating and drinking at 127 min, compared to 62 min for the US population [16]. Furthermore, the study highlighted an increase in the consumption of certified quality products, such as Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG), and organic foods, in Italy. The market for these products is worth around 16.9 billion euros (+4.2% compared to 2019), confirming a growing trend in recent years for the entire food quality sector, contributing 19% of the total turnover of the Italian agribusiness sector [17,18]. The purchases of PDO and PGI products in Italy increased by 12%, compared to 9.2% for the entire agri-food sector, confirming the growing sensitivity of consumers towards certified products. This trend was also related to the increasing number of certified quality products, which grew from 824 in 2019 to 838 in 2020 [18].

Literature Review

An international literature review published in 2021 was performed to explore the behaviours of new consumers towards online food delivery services and highlight the knowledge gap that the current study aims to fill. The year 2021, the year after the pandemic began, was taken as a reference year because food delivery has become a better known and more widespread service, even among consumers who had never used it before the health emergency. The literature review was performed by consulting Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, and Google Scholar. The keywords used for the research were “consumer behaviours” and “food delivery”. About 20 references were observed.

Several authors point out that the current pandemic situation due to SARS-CoV-2 has significantly affected the food delivery sphere [19,20] and the food delivery sector has greatly grown as people felt safer staying at home [21,22]. The pandemic has, therefore, created a significant market share for this kind of service [23,24]. Tran, in his study, tested how social isolation, regional norms, perceptions of food safety, and hygiene in the delivery service positively influenced the behavioural intention of consumers to use food delivery services [25]. Chenarides et al. found that the increase in food delivery services indicates the preference for delivery platforms rather than in store-direct or farm delivery services [26]. Lu et al. explored a 71.2% increase in online fresh food purchases by respondents [27]. This increase was mainly due to subjective norms that have a more substantial effect on behavioural intention than personal attitudes [28].

The recent literature on food delivery confirmed that the pandemic situation could represent a favourable moment to introduce new delivery services to the market. However, the innovativeness and perceived innovativeness of the service were also confirmed as factors positively impacting joining delivery services [19,21]. The combination of a particular historical period and the proposal of an innovative delivery service of certified quality products showed the great applicability of our research study.

Food quality is a multifaceted concept, very often referring to the healthiness of food. Many recent studies have pointed out the increase in unhealthy food consumption. Indeed, the consumption of snacks and unhealthy foods was related to a higher weight gain (especially for obese people), as reported by Pellegrini et al. [29]. The consumption of snacks, fast food [26], ultra-processed foods, and comfort food (richer in fat and sugar) has increased in the last year [30] due to the effects of the staying at home situation and heightened anxiety about the pandemic. Several simple actions could prevent impulse buying of unhealthy products, such as making minimally processed foods easily visible and ultra-processed one less visible [31] or designing online grocery stores to support healthy eating [32].

Regarding the influence of food quality in delivery services, some studies highlighted that quality plays a key positive role in influencing consumer behaviours and expectations [20,33,34]. Gardan et al. found a positive and significant effect on the perception of ordered food product quality and usage behaviour of food delivery service customers [33], while Dsouza et al. indicated that food quality plays a vital role in influencing consumer satisfaction with online food delivery portals [34]. Furthermore, the service owner’s refusal to take responsibility for poor quality products was found to be an obstacle to joining a food delivery service [35]. Another paper found a different role of food quality depending on the age. For consumers over 30 years of age, food quality is the most important driver of use of delivery services, while for younger consumers, quality follows product innovation [36]. This outcome only confirms that an innovative service with certified quality products should find a large audience of users, especially in Italy. Most of the papers, in fact, concerned data collected in Asia [8,19,21,22,25,27,30], America, and Europe [33,35,37]. Only one paper [28] was found to deal with online food delivery in Italy but with a different purpose than that of this paper.

Therefore, based on the literature evidence, this study is designed to test the following hypotheses (Figure 1):

H1. 

Food choice motives (CMs) and the consumer’s personal characteristics affect the interest in a food delivery service that involves only certified quality products.

H2. 

Food CMs and the consumer’s personal characteristics influence their willingness to pay for a food delivery service that includes only certified quality products.

Figure 1. Hypothetical framework used in this study.

Figure 1. Hypothetical framework used in this study.

2. Materials and Methods

This study aimed to evaluate the possibility of including certified quality products in a food delivery service. To this end, a survey was conducted among Italian consumers (n = 630) to identify a target population for the proposed service.

2.1. Survey Method

The survey’s goal was to identify the percentage of interviewees interested in certified quality products obtained through a food delivery service and their willingness to pay for this service. Consistent with the related literature, a non-probabilistic convenience sampling method was employed, and the 20:1 respondent-to-variables ratio threshold was respected [8]. The survey included six CMs and four socio-demographic attributes (

Table 1. Measurement items for the 6 choice motives (CMs).

CMs	Measurement Item	Coding
		Buy Groceries 1	Buy Groceries 2	Buy Groceries 3	/
Buy groceries	Groceries are bought by the respondent	1	0	0
	Groceries are bought by partner/relative	0	1	0
	Groceries are bought via a delivery service.	0	0	1
		Convenience 1	Convenience 2	/	/
Convenience stores	Using convenience stores to buy groceries	1	0
	Not using convenience stores to buy groceries	0	1
		Attributes 1	Attributes 2	Attributes 3	Attributes 4
Purchase motivation	Food is chosen according to price	1	0	0	0
	Food is chosen according to marketing	0	1	0	0
	Food is chosen according to organoleptic and nutritional properties	0	0	1	0
	Food is chosen according to quality certifications.	0	0	0	1
		Quality 1	Quality 2	Quality 3	Quality 4
Quality perception	Perception of food quality: health and hygiene safety	1	0	0	0
	Perception of food quality: origin or production, typicality certifications, etc.	0	1	0	0
	Perception of food quality: organoleptic properties	0	0	1	0
	Perception of food quality: nutritional properties	0	0	0	1
		Budget 1	Budget 2	Budget 3	Budget 4
Weekly budget	Budget usually spent to buy groceries each week: 0–50 EUR	1	0	0	0
	Budget usually spent to buy groceries each week: 50–100 EUR	0	1	0	0
	Budget usually spent to buy groceries each week: 100–250 EUR	0	0	1	0
	Budget usually spent to buy groceries each week: >250 EUR	0	0	0	1
		Meals 1	Meals 2	Meals 3	Meals 4
Outside-consumed meals	Number of meals usually consumed outside of the home: none	1	0	0	0
	Number of meals usually consumed outside of the home: <2	0	1	0	0
	Number of meals usually consumed outside of the home: 2–5	0	0	1	0
	Number of meals usually consumed outside of the home: >5	0	0	0	1

) [9]. The survey was completely anonymous, and voluntary participants were informed that data would be anonymously analysed and results would only be used for academic purposes. No monetary incentives were provided. The online survey was conducted during the pandemic period. The questionnaire was made up of 29 close-ended questions and divided into three parts that required an average of 4 min to complete. The first part included questions about respondents’ personal data, such as gender, age, income, and availability of free time. The second part related to the food habits of the interviewees by evaluating the habit of having breakfast or snacks during the day, the ingredients used in their meals, and their frequency of intake. The last part described people’s interest in the proposed service and their willingness to increase their weekly budget to join the initiative.

2.2. Measures

CMs were measured with six items, as reported in Table 1. Respondents were asked who usually buys goods and groceries for their household, whether they use convenience stores, the main reasons why they decide to buy certain foods, the reasons why they consider some products to be of high quality, their weekly food budget, and the number of meals consumed outside of the home. Categorical variables were dummy coded, for example, for Buy groceries, the variables were as follows: Buy groceries 1 (Respondent:1, Partner/Relative: 0, Delivery Service: 0), Buy groceries 2 (Respondent: 0, Partner/Relative: 1, Delivery Service: 0), Buy groceries 3 (Respondent: 0, Partner/Relative: 0, Delivery Service: 1).

Table 2. Pairwise significant (p < 0.1) correlation matrix of CMs variables. Coding: (1) Buy groceries—Respondent, (2) Buy groceries—Partner, (3) Buy groceries—Delivery, (4) Convenience stores, (5) Attribute—Price, (6) Attribute—Marketing, (7) Attribute—Organoleptic/Nutritional, (8) Attribute—Certification, (9) Quality perception—Safety, (10) Quality perception—Origin, (11) Quality perception—Nutritional, (12) Quality perception—Organoleptic, (13) Weekly Budget 1, (14) Weekly Budget 2, (15) Weekly Budget 3, (16) Weekly Budget 4, (17) Outside-consumed meals 1, (18) Outside-consumed meals 2, (19) Outside-consumed meals 3, and (20) Outside-consumed meals.

Correlations	Values
1–2	−0.593
1–3	−0.166
4–5	−0.167
5–9	0.219
5–10	0.154
6–12	0.166
7–11	0.168
7–12	0.333
7–20	0.155
8–10	0.369
8–11	0.205
8–13	−0.162
8–14	0.159
13–14	−0.743
13–15	−0.368
14–15	−0.310
17–18	−0.442
17–19	−0.388
17–20	−0.199
18–19	−0.461
18–20	−0.236
19–20	−0.207

shows the pairwise significant (p < 0.1) correlation of CMs with dummied variables. Variables displaying a statistically significant pairwise correlation greater than 0.5 were excluded from subsequent steps. A significant correlation was found in Buy groceries CM variables. Furthermore, in Weekly budget, the first two levels (0–50 EUR and 50–100 EUR) were significantly negatively related. For this reason, the dummy variable related to Buy groceries being performed by a partner or relative and a Weekly budget of 50–100 EUR were excluded from the calculation.

2.3. Empirical Model

The statistical software tools JMP 15 and Stata 12 were used to perform the analysis in this study.

H1 was tested using the total sample (n = 630), while H2 was tested on the sub-sample, only including people interested in the service (n = 148). Logit regression was applied on H1 and ordered logit (ologit) regression analysis on H2.

Based on the reference literature [10,38,39,40], the following equation was estimated:

$$H1:logit\left(Interest\right)=\alpha +b_1{X}_1+b_2{X}_2+b_3{X}_3+\epsilon$$

(1)

where Interest is a dummy that assumes the value is one if the respondent is interested in the service and zero otherwise. Covariates are grouped into three classes. X₂ represents a vector of personal characteristics, such as gender, age, income, and leisure. X₂ is a vector of variables representing the food CMs (such as price, marketing, organoleptic and nutritional properties, or quality certification) and the quality perceived in the food choice (health and hygiene safety, certifications of origin or production typicality, and organoleptic and nutritional properties). X₃ includes a set of variables controlling for the respondent’s attitude to buying groceries by themself or entrusting this task to a partner/relative or a delivery service (Buy groceries), the number of meals consumed outside of the home (Outside-consumed meals), and the weekly food budget (Weekly budget).

Similarly, the following equation was estimated to test H2:

$$H2:ologit\left(Willingesstopay\right)=\alpha +b_1{X}_1+b_2{X}_2+b_3{X}_3+\eta$$

(2)

where Willingness to pay represents the increase in the weekly food budget that people who have expressed interest in the service would be willing to pay. As the variable is coded in 3 categories (i.e., less than 5%; between 5 and 10%; more than 11%), an ordered logit was estimated on the same set of variables used to estimate Equation (1).

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Data Description

Table 3. Personal characteristics distribution of the sample.

Sample Size n = 630
Gender	Male	34.2%
	Female	65.8%
Age	Range	18–99
	18–24	33.3%
	25–35	34.0%
	36–50	14.7%
	51–65	15.0%
	Over 65	2.9%
Income (EUR, monthly)	Range	0–>2500
	<500	25.1%
	500–1000	15.1%
	1000–1500	26.1%
	1500–2500	28.1%
	>2500	5.7%
Leisure (hour, daily)	Range	0–>5
	<1	7.5%
	1–3	36.8%
	3–5	38.1%
	>5	17.6%

shows the personal characteristics of the total survey sample. Female respondents represent roughly 66% of the total sample. The distribution by age sees a prevalence of respondents in the younger age groups (33% in the 18–24 age range and 34% in the 25–35 age range). The income groups have been designed to be centred around 1500 euros per month, which is the average wage of an employee in Italy [41]; 25% of respondents have an extremely low monthly personal income, probably reflecting the high share of young people in the sample, while just 5.7% declare that they earn more than 2500 euros per month. The highest share of interviewed people has between 3 and 5 h of free time per day, and only 7.5% declare less than 1 h of free time per day.

The personal characteristics of the respondents are suitable to be linked to the probability of being interested in a food delivery service involving only certified quality products. Among the women interviewed, more than 70% showed interest in the service, compared to less than 30% of men (Figure 2A). This result is broadly in line with the literature reporting that women are more often responsible for meal preparation and grocery shopping [9,42].

The scientific literature shows a positive attitude towards food delivery among people aged 30–45 years old [43,44]. In line with these findings, people older than 36 years old reported being less interested in the service than people in the younger age classes (Figure 2B).

The literature shows that income positively affects interest in the delivery service [44,45,46]. However, Figure 2C shows an unusual trend. In the lowest income class, most of the respondents declare themselves interested in the service, while in the medium income class, the share of respondents interested in the service is lower.

It is reasonable to assume that people with less free time should be more interested in the service. In fact, people with the lowest leisure time (<1 h) are four times less interested in the service, while respondents with more leisure appear more interested (Figure 2D).

3.2. H1—Service Proposal

The first column of

Table 4. Influence of CMs and personal characteristics on interest in the service and willingness to pay based on logistic and ordinal regression analyses.

Variables	H1			H2
	Coef.	t-Value	Sign.	Coef.	t-Value	Sign.
Gender (Female)	0.851	2.46	**	−0.24	−0.50
Age 2	−0.067	−0.05		0.199	0.13
Age 3	−0.857	−0.59		−0.802	−0.49
Age 4	−0.825	−0.56		−1.641	−0.97
Age 5	−2.077	−1.40		−2.937	−1.62
Age 6	−2.827	−1.53		0.727	0.26
Income 2	0.752	1.55		0.815	1.25
Income 3	0.615	1.38		0.069	0.12
Income 4	0.863	1.84	*	0.226	0.37
Income 5	1.009	1.37		3.406	3.00	***
Leisure 2	1.989	3.01	***	0.112	0.09
Leisure 3	1.413	2.16	**	−0.003	−0.00
Leisure 4	1.341	1.97	**	0.937	0.73
Buy groceries—Respondent	−0.715	−2.05	**	0.031	0.07
Buy groceries—Delivery	0.192	0.17		1.735	1.04
Convenience stores	−0.906	−2.49	**	−0.899	−1.51
Attribute—Price	0.698	2.18	**	−0.621	−1.26
Attribute—Marketing	0.483	0.65		1.012	1.12
Attribute—Organoleptic/Nutritional	0.267	0.82		0.306	0.66
Attribute—Certification	0.795	2.51	**	1.018	2.28	**
Quality perception—Safety	−0.413	−1.41		−0.139	−0.33
Quality perception—Origin	0.349	1.11		−0.29	−0.62
Quality perception—Nutritional	0.005	0.02		−0.131	−0.27
Quality perception—Organoleptic	0.228	0.68		1.113	2.31	**
Weekly Budget 3	0.103	0.23		−0.958	−1.54
Weekly Budget 4	2.914	1.92	*	−1.203	−0.75
Outside-consumed meals 2	−0.265	−0.71		1.422	2.53	**
Outside-consumed meals 3	0.243	0.60		1.764	3.09	***
Outside-consumed meals 4	−0.147	−0.26		1.3	1.59
p-value		0.0000			0.0001
R2		0.1835			0.2398
N=		630			290

*** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1.

shows the influence of CMs and personal characteristics on the interest in a food delivery service involving only certified quality products (H1).

The analysis suggests that while age does not significantly affect the variable of interest, women and respondents who have more leisure time are more likely to choose the service. Furthermore, there is weak evidence that wealthier individuals (i.e., individuals in the 4th income category) are more likely to choose the service (i.e., individuals in the 4th income category and individuals who devote a larger budget to food shopping).

As previously reported, respondents’ attitude to joining a food delivery service involving certified quality products is explored using six CMs: Buy groceries, Convenience stores, Attributes influence, Quality perception, Weekly budget, and Outside-consumed meals.

The first CM studied was the respondents’ attitude towards the variable Buy groceries. It was asked if they usually buy groceries by themselves or rely on a partner/relative or a delivery service. The CM Buy groceries only has significant influence on service joining (H1). Respondents who usually buy groceries by themselves are less interested in the service. This result could be explained in two ways. Respondents who do not buy groceries themselves are more inclined to join the service because they usually rely on others to provide groceries. On the other hand, those who have developed an independent experience of selecting and buying food are less attracted to the service-oriented selection of quality food.

The analysis of the CMs suggests that consumers more attentive to food quality are more likely to be interested in the proposed service. In fact, individuals who report that quality certification is the relevant reason for their food choice and devote a higher weekly budget to buying groceries (>250 EUR) are more likely to show interest in the service. At the same time, those who declare buying food at convenience stores regularly view price as the most relevant variable to consider when buying food, so they are less likely to be interested in service. As a matter of fact, it is reasonable to expect that groups more interested in the quality of food would be interested in a commercial proposal focused on the delivery of healthy food. In the literature, just one paper by Wang et al. has explored food choice motives in the food e-commerce [9]. That study indicated that food choice motives and sociodemographic have effects on food e-commerce attitudes and consumption. This result matches our findings; indeed, also in our study, we have demonstrated their influence on interest in the food delivery service. They found that among the most influencing attributes were value for money and purchase convenience. A similar effect was found in our study; in fact, the price and the convenience of using stores were among the most influencing factors in our study.

3.3. H2—Willingness to Pay for the Service

The second column of Table 4 explores the influence of consumers’ CMs and personal characteristics on their willingness to pay for a food delivery service involving only certified quality products (H2). This hypothesis involves choosing three types of weekly budget increment: 5%, 5–10%, and >10%.

Among the people who have declared their interested in the service, the richest people are more willing to pay for the service than those in the other income ranges (i.e., the dummy representing an individual with a monthly net income higher than 2500 euros has a positive and statistically significant coefficient). The results appear broadly in line with what was observed in H1. Other personal characteristics, including gender and leisure time, do not explain the spending patterns among people interested in the service.

Individuals responding to the buy groceries variable based on certifications and organoleptic properties are more likely to be willing to increase their weekly budget to join the service. As a matter of fact, it can be assumed that these individuals are more interested in the quality of the food, as both of these variables have a positive and statistically significant coefficient. People who habitually consume one to five meals outside per week are more willing to spend for the service than those who do not consume meals outside (p-value <0.01 and <0.05). It is noteworthy that people who usually consume a lot of meals outside are more willing to pay than people who usually consume their meals at home.

These results validate the aim of this study by confirming that consumers interested in certified quality food products should be prioritised for the proposed service.

Indeed, all CMs showed significant influence on both hypotheses. In particular, Buy groceries, Convenience stores, Purchase motivation, and Weekly budget influence H1; Purchase motivation, Quality perception, and Outside-consumed meals influence H2. Only the Purchase motivation variable was significant for both hypothesis involving food with quality certifications. This result is particularly relevant as this study is focused on the delivery of food products with quality certifications.

4. Conclusions

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, people have taken advantage of the opportunity to enjoy a great deal of services by staying at home. In this period, e-commerce and food delivery has exponentially grown, especially in the food sector. This paper aimed to evaluate the feasibility of a food delivery service in Italy, involving only products with quality certification. This service should be particularly attractive to the Italian population who pay close attention to their food habits and a significant part of which is interested in certified quality products (PDO, PGI, TSG, BIO). In this study, an online survey was administered to 630 respondents during the pandemic to evaluate their interest in a food delivery service involving certified quality products and the respondents’ willingness to pay for this service. This study evaluated the influence of socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, income, and leisure time) and choice motives (Buy groceries, Convenience stores, Attributes influence, Quality perception, Weekly budget, and Outside-consumed meals) on interest in the proposed service and their willingness to pay using logit regression analysis. The results obtained show that women and respondents who have more leisure time are more likely to choose this service, while there is weak evidence that wealthier individuals are more likely to choose it. CMs suggest that consumers more concerned with food quality and those devoting a higher weekly budget to buying groceries are more likely to be interested in the proposed service. The second hypothesis explored the influence of consumers’ CMs and personal characteristics on their willingness to pay for a food delivery service involving only certified quality products. This hypothesis involves choosing from three types of weekly budget increment: 5%, 5–10%, and >10%. Among people who declared interest in the service, wealthier people are more willing to pay for the service than others. Other personal characteristics, including gender and leisure time, do not significantly influence willingness to pay for the service. Individuals who buy groceries based on certifications and organoleptic properties and people who habitually consume one to five meals outside were more likely to be willing to increase their weekly budget to join the service.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that relates the personal characteristics of consumers to the reasons for choosing this kind of service. The results obtained could be a reference for further research based on surveys involving e-commerce and certified quality products. These findings may also have managerial and market implications. Producers and distributors of certified food products could use them to address their products to targeted consumers, i.e., those willing to pay for a delivery service involving certified quality products. In addition, the analysis of personal characteristics and choice motives taken into consideration could represent a useful tool for decision-makers to develop new e-commerce platforms to sell their certified quality products. They could also attract investors for the development and implementation of smartphone applications that encourage this service.

The present study also has some limitations. Firstly, the sampling is not representative of the entire Italian population and involved respondents aged over 18 years old who do not represent all of the personal characteristics of Italians. It should also be emphasised that young people, also known as digital natives, are more confident in the e-world, and consequently, the proposed service could see significant development in the years to come. Ultimately, it was not possible to compare our findings with the literature results because this study is still exploratory in this area and points towards a new service proposal. Once the service has been released, future studies should conduct a more in-depth analysis of service acceptance by involving an increased number of respondents and a more complex theoretical framework.