Online grocery retailing in Austria - A distribution planning strategy for multi-channel development

The uncertain market in online grocery retailing as well as the unclear ambivalence whether traditional distribution networks can handle e-grocery activities are two aspects of high significance. Given this challenging setting, the purpose of the paper is to develop a distribution planning approach for identifying capacity utilisation in online retail logistics distribution based on expected online sales potential. As no defined regional experiences from market competition can be referenced and no insights be derived from the past, a complementary approach of combining statistical data and scenario analysis with consumer focus detection and field testing has been used. A specific distribution planning approach under uncertain market development enabled to identify sales potentials and to clarify logistics’ scalability (capacity utilisation, locations planning, order handling, interface to service provider, etc.). A central implication in course of the underlying research is the context-specific analysis for an Austrian grocery retailer, which limits the derived findings to a non-general validity. The developed strategy and its aspects led to an applied concept and strategic cooperation between the involved retailer and a service provider in Austria.