Online Food Distribution from the Perspective of Food Producers

Abstract

Development of the Internet undoubtedly revolutionised the economy of the world and caused the economic processes to accelerate. Owing to the development of the Web, companies can undertake actions of global nature and therefore extend the market they function on. Development of the Internet and progress in the field of information and communication technologies also plays a significant role in the transformations of distribution channels. Distri-bution of products via the Internet has been becoming increasingly popular in the recent years, which is confirmed by the data on the number of buyers buying online and the increasing value of online sales. The study is an attempt to assess the possibility of using the Internet for distribution of gro-cery products produced by small and medium food producing enterprises. The presented analyses indicate a growing interest in online food shopping, and this shows that this phenomenon is going to intensify. However, it should be noted that online food distribution will complement supply with food products purchased in brick and mortar stores, and online stores will be launched by trade companies operating on the market in traditional form. At the current scale of interest in online food shopping and high organisational and financial expenditures on running food distribu-tion online by small food producers, such initiatives should be recognised as unjustified. Regardless of the continuous increase of interest in purchases of different kinds of products online and the optimism in regard to sales via this channel, this form of sales cannot be treated as a universal distribution channel, which every producer can and should use to sell their products.