Customer Shopping Habits of Perishable Goods Affecting the Distribution of Logistics Facilities in Selected CEE Market

Abstract

Over the last few years, there has been a rapid growth of businesses focusing on e-commerce, more specifically, on deliveries of perishable goods. The rapid expansion is interlinked with digitalisation, the availability of the Internet, and global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the current war situation. Significant life changes have resulted in many customers shifting their shopping habits from a more traditional brick-and-mortar experience to a modern way of online shopping. The current market dynamics have sped up the move to e-commerce and increased the expectations of different stakeholders for the supply chain management to support and maintain this growth. The paper's objective is to provide a brief history of e-commerce and further elaborate on the emerging topic of the logistics facility location problem. The article includes information about customers’ shopping habits for perishable goods, which can be linked to the selection and optimal location of logistics facilities operating fresh groceries. The secondary data has been extracted using the Market & Media & Lifestyle I database, which consists of a sample group of 15,000 respondents from different regions in the Czech Republic.