Multi Perspective Technology Readiness Assessment for E-commerce: Case of the Omni-channel Adoption in the Food Retail Sector During COVID-19

Using E-commerce has become crucial for retailers, specifically in the food business. In and after the era of COVID-19, as technology advances, there has been a necessity to apply an omnichannel strategy. In response, this research aims to develop a decision focus assessing Omni-channeled adoption for the management of emerging technologies in food retailing during and after the era of COVID-19 to evaluate the omnichannel capabilities of food organizations. The gaps of this research are presented as the lack of studies to evaluate the adoption of the omnichannel approach in food retailing comprehensively and identify the factors impacting the adoption of the omnichannel strategy in the food industry. Also, no research has categorized these factors, or compared them against each other. The method used is based on the hierarchical decision model (HDM) approach to find the optimal solution to fill gaps and to be implemented in food retailing. The main factors of the omnichannel in the food industry were identified based on a literature review and expert interviews. These factors were categorized into five perspectives which are social, organizational, technological, legal, and financial perspectives. This research established the HDM scoring model using experts’ validation, quantification, and desirability values. The model is then applied in two case studies to test the model’s practicality and achieve the objective of this research. The model analyzes the weaknesses and strengths of two food hypermarkets in Saudi Arabia, providing recommendations for improvement. The audience of this research are retailers, developers, researchers, participators, policymakers, decision-makers, and anyone interested in business and technology management.