An online relationship between consumer trends and food in its various avatars Michael Riya1, Saxena Richa K.2 1NMIMS, ASMSOC, Mumbai Campus, She can be reached at riya.aurea@gmail.com 2Assistant Professor, NMIMS, ASMSOC, Mumbai Campus Online published on 11 September, 2020. Abstract The latest advancements of the Internet has enhanced the growth of online food services by assisting people to search, compare prices and conveniently access these services. Many a time, the preference for a food product like noodles may not depend upon just the price, quality, quantity or even taste, but merely on its availability ‘online’. The food systems in case of countries having low and middle income are heterogeneous and fragmented. Moreover, numerous small time food retailers are prevailing in such countries. Therefore, safety and hygiene considerations need to be catered to with utmost importance. Especially, unorganised processing of food, transfer plus packaging of this food among small online food retailers leads to the elevation of the risk of food adulteration or contamination and contributes to food poisoning outbreaks due to the extension of several harmful bacteria. This article gives an insight into consumers’ preferences, perceptions, needs, their level of awareness, their convenience and their willingness to purchase food online as well as offline. An online questionnaire was collected by conducting a survey. It was found that in India, though people are not very price conscious when it comes to food and are ready to try new food items, they are aware about conventional food items. Indian consumers also give importance to fast food that comes with quick convenient delivery. Top Keywords Queue, Waiting time, Customer satisfaction, Self-decision quotient. Top |