Customer Delivered Value in a Web-based Supermarket

This paper explores the marketing of daily consumer goods in a pilot Web-based supermarket, in which no regular customers existed from among 65 registered ones at the end of the pilot project. Descriptive case research strategy and qualitative methods of analysis are utilized. Empirical evidence was obtained through multiple sources during an eight-month pilot period. The case study is analyzed using customer delivered value as a framework. The achieved results demonstrate the value and costs for pilot customers, and reveal key issues for further development. Although the Web's potential for marketing has been noted in the literature, this case shows difficulties in delivering total customer value when costs are also taken into account. It is suggested that systems development should find new means to deliver additional customer value in Web retailing context to exceed switching costs for customers.