Abstract
Online grocery shopping is an increasing trend in many countries. Several studies have been done to investigate different aspects of online grocery shopping. Researchers have found that the likelihood that there will be something wrong with the product, called product risk, is prominent in online grocery shopping services. The product risk is especially associated with perishable products. However, knowledge on how online grocery services can reduce product risk is limited. Furthermore, there is a need for identification of trust building factors, which in turn might help increasing customers’ trust when buying groceries online. The overall objective of this research project is to investigate how to increase customers’ trust when buying perishable products online. Through design, prototyping, and evaluation activities, we explore how to increase customers’ perception of the ability of the person collecting groceries, as a way to build trust. This is done through the enabling of a variety of user feedback types such as ratings, comments, and presence. The research project combines technology research with service design thinking. The combination of these two is used in the design process of creating and exploring several concepts, customer journey maps, and prototypes. The prototypes are evaluated through group interviews and usability testing followed by interviews related to trust. Our results are in line with findings of the previous studies that found product risk to be a major risk associated with buying perishable products online. Our results extend this knowledge by identifying social risk as an important factor present among customers who are asked to give feedback on online services. Based on the results from our design and evaluation process, we propose design implications useful for researchers, designers, and developers concerned with the development of services in the context of online grocery shopping. Furthermore, we present lessons learned about adapting technology research to fit the creation of services, lessons learned when using future workshop as a method in service design, and lessons learned when working with service design and prototypes that might be useful to both the researchers and practitioners working in service design field.