Exploring the consumers willingness of using e-commerce to purchase geographical indication based crops, a case study of Udupi jasmine

Udupi jasmine cultivation has proven to be a successful viable community-based enterprise (CBE) in coastal Karnataka of India. Jasmine cultivation plays a major role in the socio-economic status of this CBE. This study focuses on exploring the consumers willingness of using e-commerce to buy Udupi jasmine. An e-commerce test web application was built and was demonstrated to consumers. Demographic details, jasmine buying purpose and frequency, online shopping details and willingness of consumers to buy jasmine online was captured. Study showed positive correlation between consumers willingness of using e-commerce to buy jasmine and recommending the e-commerce web application to others. The study validates the e-commerce framework using which the web application was built to market Udupi jasmine which has a Geographical Indication (GI) tag. Hence the study provides new approaches in marketing crops that are specific to a geographical location and presents new direction in the sector of GI based crops.