The principal-agent problem of consumer logistics in e-grocery shopping

Abstract

As grocery shopping shifted from traditional to online environment, consumer logistics that shoppers once completed by themselves has been undertaken by E-Grocers(Online Grocers). Consequently the principal-agent relationship is built between online shoppers and E-Grocers due to the information asymmetry. The Principal-Agent Problem in this context was identified and explained by using the principal-agent theory and a mathematical model was constructed. The results indicate that, when the surplus benefit is nearly dependent on online shoppers completely, e-grocers will make effort to reduce logistics cost, improve logistics services and avoid the moral hazard on the conditions of building a thorough evaluating system for the service quality of consumer logistics and an effective incentive mechanism, redesigning a coordination mechanism and cultivating an e-grocery shopping market with the development of online grocery shopping market and consumer logistics outsourcing market.