ASSESSING CONSUMER RISKS AND WAYS TO NEUTRALISE THEM WHEN BUYING FOOD PRODUCTS ON THE ONLINE MARKET

Abstract

The article examines the risks that consumers face when buying food online and explores the possibilities of neutralizing these risks. The development of e-commerce associated with Internet technologies and the digital transformation of society has led to the growth of online commerce. Even after the impact of the military events of 2022, the e-commerce market in Ukraine has positive forecasts for recovery by 2025. Therefore, consumer perception of risks in online shopping remains an important aspect that affects their behavior. To study this aspect, 715 Ukrainian Internet users were surveyed, of whom 483 (63.1%) made online food purchases. The questionnaire contained 17 questions aimed at assessing 7 types of consumer risk in online shopping, such as functional, physical, time, psychological, service, financial and social risks. Functional risk turned out to be the most important for online food shoppers. 97.5% of respondents highly appreciated the importance of situations where the product does not meet the declared quality or the possibility of obtaining a substitute product. Also important for consumers is the risk of purchasing dangerous goods or goods with altered chemical composition that corresponds to a physical risk. The third most important is the time risk associated with spending time searching, placing an order, and waiting for delivery. According to the study, 80.1% of respondents noted the importance of psychological risk associated with internal consumer dissatisfaction and 73.9% of respondents consider service risk associated with the online shopping process to be important. Consumers rate the level of financial risk above average. However, the greater danger for consumers is not caused by the possibility of receiving goods at a higher price, but by the possibility of losses due to fraudulent financial technologies.The least important risk for respondents is social risk, which is associated with the possibility that the products purchased do not match the social group or status of the buyer. Only 31.7% of respondents see the importance of this risk. For each type of consumer risk, marketing tools have been developed to neutralize it. The use of such tools makes online shopping offers more attractive to online shoppers.