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Online food delivery services: cross-sectional study of consumers’ attitude in Malaysia during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Malaysian consumers were more likely to purchase food online and have it delivered to their doorstep. To stay afloat, many restaurants were pushed to provide online food delivery services (OFDS), and this sector has grown tremendously. However, will the trend persist after the pandemic? This study aims to look into how consumers’ perceptions of OFDS affect their attitude towards them. It investigates the relationship between convenience motivation, perceived ease of use, time-saving orientation and price-saving orientation in terms of future intent to use OFDS. Method: Primary data was collected from 307 respondents in Malaysia using convenience sampling method through an online survey. Respondents’ demographic background was presented statistically in cross tabulation tables to study the ratio comparison implicitly. Consistent Partial Least Square approach and bootstrapping techniques with 5,000 subsamples was employed, with the aid of SmartPLS.V3 software, to identify the significant factors influencing consumers’ continuance intention after the pandemic. Result: Perceived ease of use does not contribute significantly to continuance intention as most consumers have prior online purchase experience.  Nevertheless, time-saving orientation has a positive correlation with perceived ease of use due to the simplicity of placing an order with just a click.  It is also found that price-saving orientation is related to convenience motivation, particularly when prices can be compared on the websites or online ordering platforms. Consumers’ intention to continue using OFDS even after the COVID-19 pandemic is positively influenced by all the parameters studied, except for perceived ease of use. Conclusion: Limited work has been done on the continuance intention to use OFDS beyond the pandemic. This study provides insight for food retailers on how to enhance their business and retain their customers with the support of technology, even after the COVID-19 pandemic.