E- commerce for the Beer Category

The master’s thesis deals with the beer category in online commerce. Currently, the e-commerce channel is the fastest growing retail channel in the Czech Republic. The main goal of the thesis is to identify reasons why beer as a grocery category under-trades in the online channel in the Czech Republic. The secondary goal is to provide recommendations on how to enhance drivers to online beer shopping and reduce the impact of identified barriers and obstacles. The methods used to reach the goals consist in gaining and analysing data on beer shoppers compared to online beer shoppers and a conduction of a primary research on the behavioral reasons behind the underperformance of the online beer category using methods of a focus group and an online survey. Drivers and barriers to purchasing beer online identified by analysing the results of the primary research serve as a base for providing recommendations on enhancement of the category. The theoretical part discusses retail e-commerce, grocery e-commerce focusing on causes of grocery categories’ sales performance, and Czech online grocery landscape. Results of the thesis can be used by both e-retailers and beer producers to grow the online sales of the beer category.