A Long-term Case Study of an E-grocery Concept

This paper describes experiences of value creation in e-grocery business. In addition to customer value, we focus on the strategic management perspective this being extremely vital as profitable ebusiness is emphasized. To get more in-depth understanding of the phenomenon a long-term case study strategy and qualitative methods were used. Based on the results of the study, profitability seems to become a key issue as the e-business is decentralized and integrated into business units. Introduction Developing an e-grocery business model for a supermarket was studied from 1998 up to 2003. In the first stage 1998-2000 the business model was used in the Oulu Technology Village. In 2000 the egrocery was opened for customers in the city of Oulu until 2001 when the e-shop was closed. We studied the performance of the business model from marketing perspective, i.e. from the customer value and the retailer and the retail chain perspectives. We also investigated the strategy process from 2001 up to 2003, during which process it became clear that this type of business model does not yet