Grocery e-commerce in the UK and Denmark: Strategic market creation

The purpose of this article is to propose a framework for the analysis of market creation and apply this to the grocery e-commerce business. The article develops a model of four forces that interplay when companies engage in the process of creating new markets. The applicability of the model is exemplified by examining the interaction of the forces having created grocery e-commerce markets in the UK and Denmark. The application of the model reveals that besides the usual identification of competition intensity, the persistency of market reach efforts of a focal firm and the value attraction of its offerings play a significant role in the creation of grocery e-commerce markets. The practical implications are that retailers should not just transfer a grocery e-commerce set-up from one national market to another without considering the mentioned four forces in their own national markets.