Technology Acceptance and Consumer Attitudes toward Online Grocery Shopping: Evidence from Gauteng, South Africa
Sheila Kwenda ORCID ↗ · Johan de Jager ORCID ↗ · Anton Drotsky
International Journal of Business Ecosystem & Strategy · 2026 · Vol. 8 / Issue 5 · 700–708
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Abstract
Technological advancement has transformed the grocery retail, fundamentally altering how consumers interact with retailers and purchase essential goods. Despite rapid digital adoption since the COVID-19 pandemic, uptake of online grocery shopping (OGS) in emerging markets remains uneven. The drivers of consumer attitudes towards this channel are not well understood in the South African context. This paper investigates the effects of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived risk on consumer attitudes towards OGS in Gauteng, South Africa. It investigate whether perceived usefulness mediates the effect of perceived ease of use on attitude. Data were collected through a structured, self-administered questionnaire distributed online to grocery shoppers aged 18 to 60 across Gauteng, yielding a final valid sample of 507 respondents. The data were analysed using a two-step structural equation modelling approach in Stata 17, with Spearman correlation and quantile regression conducted as additional robustness checks. Perceived usefulness emerged as the strongest, most consistent driver of consumer attitudes towards OGS (β = 0.555, p < 0.001). Perceived ease of use had a positive direct effect (β = 0.162, p = 0.020) that did not hold consistently under the quantile regression check; it was, however, strongly correlated with perceived usefulness (ρ = 0.589, p < 0.001). A formal mediation test found that perceived usefulness did not significantly mediate the relationship between perceived ease of use and attitude (Sobel p = 0.321), indicating that perceived ease of use influences attitude directly rather than through perceived usefulness. Contrary to previous studies and initial expectations, perceived risk did not significantly influence consumer attitudes (β = 0.059, p = 0.319). These findings extend the Technology Acceptance Model to an emerging online grocery market and offer practical guidance for retailers seeking to strengthen consumer adoption in similar developing-market contexts.
Keywords: perceived ease of use, perceived risk, online grocery shopping
Authors & affiliations
Sheila Kwenda
Tshwane University of Technology
Johan de Jager
Tshwane University of Technology
Anton Drotsky
Tshwane University of Technology
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