Shop 'till the fees drop: A quantitative study on students' perceptions and attitudes towards delivery fees

Abstract: Due to the rapid technological developments in E-commerce, an increasing amount of the Swedish population resorts to online shopping for their necessities. Thus, the Swedish online grocery retail industry has established an online presence, leading to additional shipping and handling costs. This thesis investigates what impacts Swedish students' perceptions and attitudes towards delivery fees as they are price sensitive and frequent online shoppers. Furthermore, this thesis aims to empirically investigate the effects of different delivery fee pricing strategies' influence on students' attitudes and perceptions. A quantitative study is conducted using a 2 (Price Partitioning) x 2 (Amount Paid for Groceries) matrix study where students' Attitude Towards the Offer and Price Fairness Perception with regards to delivery fees are investigated. The study is made through a questionnaire distributed digitally and physically to Swedish students. The results indicate that students' Attitude towards the Offer and Price Fairness Perception is higher when a Non-Partitioned Pricing strategy is used. Similarly, attitudes and perceptions are higher when the relative size of the delivery fee compared to the Amount Paid for Groceries is smaller. Based on the results, implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.