A Website Maturity Model: The Case of Zimbabwean Supermarkets

Abstract

Since the introduction of the Internet, organisations have employed the use of websites in their business dealings. Supermarkets have also taken up this challenge in order to take advantage of the benefits of websites in an effort to gain a competitive advantage in today's e-business environment. The objectives of this paper were to explore the adoption and use of supermarket websites in Zimbabwean supermarkets and to assess the quality of these websites. The results were also related to existing models and the eventual development of the Website Maturity Model. A mixed method approach was employed where questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data from supermarket managers. The results indicated that although Zimbabwean supermarkets had set up websites for their organisations, the websites were mainly used for work purposes and their rate was low, particularly in terms of quality and depth of content and frequency of update. When related to existing models, the supermarket websites were found to be at low maturity stages. With regard to the developed Website Maturity Model, the websites were also found to be at low maturity stages and at the lower end of the Website Maturity Continuum. The study recommends supermarkets to introduce online selling of groceries in order to upgrade their websites to become transactional websites so that they reach the higher maturity stages/levels that can thrive in tomorrow's technological era where e-business will be the norm.