Electronic and Online Halal Food in Malaysia: Identifying the Consumption Behaviour

Abstract

There has been a rapid growth of the global Halal market over the past twenty years or so. In part, this has been due to the rising demands of the global Muslim society, the very potential of this market, governmental backing and various initiatives, along with the increasing awareness and knowledge of Muslims and others. With the unprecedented expansion of e-business that is being seen today, the various players and stakeholders need to gain a deeper understanding of consumption behaviors within the online Halal food market. In Malaysia, many food industries have been utilizing the ‘Halal’ term to gain a competitive edge. However, it has to be kept in mind that the rising demand for halal foods could be restricted because of the consumers’ lacking awareness or knowledge. This is particularly so with the younger consumers who might not pay as much attention to ‘Halal’ matters. In view of this, the current study focuses on the consumption behaviors of online Halal food among consumers from three different age groups. Responses were gathered by means of self-administered questionnaires from 384 respondents based in Malaysia’s Klang valley. The data analyses related to the descriptive statistics as well as the one-way ANOVA were performed using the SPSS 29 software. The findings indicate that there are differences in the consumption behaviors of online Halal food based on the different age groups. These findings could be potentially useful for Malaysian Halal food producers in accordance with the specific consumers that they are targeting.