The Organic Food Market: Opportunities and Challenges - Organic Food and Agriculture: New Trends and Developments in the Social Sciences - page 76

first tested the relationship between the type of consumer ( RC versus non-RC ) and most
used channels of distribution using cross-tabs and Chi-square tests. Then we tested the
association between trust orientations and choice of channels of distribution using t-tests
( channel users versus channel non-users ). This helps to understand who the users are: RC or
non-RC; and their trust orientations.

8.3.1 Channel user/non-users vs OF RC/non-RC
Results from the cross-tabulations give the following distribution of OF consumers. It is
clear that most RC buy from short channels while non-RC buy from standard channels. A
more in-depth analysis of the most used channels and the most trusted channels is needed.

Channel of Distribution Non-RC RC

Supermarket 21.5% 17.6%

OF store 5.2% 16.9%

Directly from producer 3.6% 5.2%

Local market 1.6% 7.8%

Convenience store 1% 0.3%

Health food store 1.3% 11.1%

Home delivery 0% 2.6%

Table 4. Distribution of RC/non-RC by Channel of Distribution

8.3.2 Most used channels of distribution
A descriptive analysis of the data shows that 74.6% of all respondents buy at least from two
different outlets. Further, the most used channel of distribution is the supermarket (31.22%),
followed by the organic food stores (27.77%), and local markets (27.17%). As expected, RC
consumers represents the largest proportion of channels' users for all channels of
distribution. In order to test if trust orientations are associated with the choice of the channel
of distribution, t-tests were run. Results are summarized in Table 5.
Table 5 shows that channel users and non-users of specialty stores and supermarkets have
different trust orientations, i.e., prior experiences, organic labels trust, and brand and store
trust. Conversely, there is no difference between the level of trust of users and non-users of
local markets. Direct channel users and non-users have different levels of organic labels
trust and prior experiences. This makes sense since OF consumers use direct channels -
represented by farmers or organic producers - if they know who the producer is and what
the products are. The purchase situation and framework in this case are very context
specific, and hence consumers' trust orientation is based on a direct relationship with the
producer. As far as the supermarkets go, the only important trust orientation is the one
related to the store and the brand, which is in accordance with Sirieix et al. (2004) findings.
The crux of shopping at supermarkets is that these channels of distribution are the most
used point of sale because of their convenience, and may not be necessarily trusted. Further,
Chi-square tests show that the only significant relationship is between on one hand, organic
food stores users and non-users, and on the other hand the type of consumers, RC and non-
RC. This means that the type of channel of distribution, and its users, does not determine the
type of consumers (RC or non-RC) of that channel of distribution. To recapitulate,
consumers' trust orientations determine their choice of the most used channel of distribution,
and channels adoption is not related to the type of consumers.