Conclusion
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study of organic food online shopping in Poland. Organic e-consumers are driven by quality signs to a larger extent than the rest of the sample both in their organic and conventional food purchases. Among organic econsumers, organic food authenticity is evaluated primarily with the use of the following criteria: product quality, quality signs, taste, and label. In the opinion of organic online shoppers, the crucial barriers to the development of organic market include primarily high prices, low availability, insufficient consumer knowledge and scepticism toward the systems of certification and labelling. The most important organic food selection motives among the online shoppers are: eco-friendliness, healthfulness, quality assurance, taste, and safety. Almost a half of organic e-consumers also buy organic food in specialised physical shops and a third of them in markets and bazaars. In a logistic regression model, age, income, willingness to pay a premium price for organic food, importance attached to product appearance and to quality signs turned out to be statistically significant determinants of online shopping behaviour for organic food in Poland. Higher income, importance attached to quality signs and higher WTP increase the likelihood of being an organic e-consumer, while higher age and importance attached to product appearance decrease it.
