Global Journal of Management and Business Research, E: Marketing, Volume 22 Issue 2

Factors Influencing Customer Loyalty in Online Groceries after COVID-19 in Sri Lanka Udanee Samarasinghe H.M.U.S.R α , Wijesinghe A.G.L σ , Jayawardhana G.H.H ρ , Siriwardhana J.P.R Ѡ & M.D.M.M Ijas ¥ Abstract- The; Internet is currently being utilized to enable faster business activities among businesses and consumers for various goods and services. However; Online Grocery Shopping (OGS) is not popular in Sri Lanka. But; nowadays, people will struggle to go to shops physically during this Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore; many customers have turned to online platforms to meet their needs. This; study investigates a significant impact on the dependent variable is customer loyalty, and independent variables are customer satisfaction, customer confidence, customer trust, and technology adoption, and age; as a moderator in the COVID- 19 period. The; Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is used to impart the theoretical foundation for this research. The; data was gathered through the questionnaire distributed online to 384 people, and the sampling method is the purposive sampling technique. Derived; from the results of a survey's; statistical studies, the TAM's; studies reveal the ability to investigate OGS adoption in the Colombo District. Once; the data collection is completed, the results will be analyzed using SPSS software and reading the multiple linear regression method. Keywords: online grocery, online shopping, sri lanka, COVID-19, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, customer confidence, customer trust, product quality, technology adoption. I. I ntroduction a) Background of the study he Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), which has infected more than 220 million people in more than 200 countries worldwide and killed more than four million, began in the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei Province in 2019 (BBC, 2020). In; the COVID-19 pandemic people's; behavior is moved in many paths by a critical situation, with some aspects of behavior becoming uncontrollable. Consumer; behavior is changing due to economic uncertainty, although how most of the change demonstrated during the COVID-19 crisis will last remains to be seen (Mehta, Saxena, and Purohit, 2020). Against; an environment wherein global powers have succumbed to COVID-19's; devastating pandemic, Sri Lanka is suffering dramatic change in its traditional social, cultural, and economic behavior. Today’s; generation is fascinated with the internet; because of the vast amount of knowledge and numerous conveniences available the internet. In; 2021, around 4.6 billion people will utilize the Internet; out of Author α : SLIIT Business School, Malabe. e-mail: udanee.s@sliit.lk an overall population of 7.8 billion. In; comparison to the previous year, this is a 7.3% incensement, and internet penetration or internet utilization as a percentage of the population in the World was 59.5% in January 2021 (Kemp, 2021). According to these reports, it is visible that most of the population of Sri Lanka has shopped online at least once in their lifetime. On; the other hand, customers can order as many commodities as they prefer and as much as they can afford (Chen, 2006). As; consumers become more technologically savvy and knowledgeable about the use and acceptance of digital media and the internet; there has been an unprecedented growth in online shopping. Another; advantage of online groceries is good customer service and investigating factors influencing customer loyalty and repurchase intentions in online shopping services like prompt responses to queries online, cancel, and return options, different modes of payment like cards payments, COD and EMI are few other benefits that online shoppers experience. This; makes online groceries risky to the customer end, leading to a lack of trust, which at times causes consumer avoidance of online shopping (Ribbink et al., 2004). Since; a limited number of empirical research has been conducted taking the Sri Lankan context into concern, examining the influencing force of customer loyalty in online groceries. Therefore; the primary purpose of this study is to explore the influence of key factors such as product quality, customer trust, and customer confidence on customer loyalty in online groceries in the Sri Lankan context. Initially; the study will explore the nature of customer loyalty, product quality, customer trust, and confidence in the Sri Lankan context. In this study; a few hypotheses about the influence of each of these factors on customer loyalty in online groceries will be developed, and based on the research data collected from the selected sample, and those hypotheses will be examined. This; is followed by the methodology used in this study to explore the developed model. Finally; the study elaborately discuss the results and will provide potential implications for further research. b) Problem Statement Shopping through the internet; is a part of E- Commerce; (Ouellette, 2019) says in the study, “In 2019, it estimated; there are 1.92 billion digital buyers, and E- T 39 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue II Version I Year 2022 ( )E © 2022 Global Journals