Exploring the Critical Factors Affecting the Sales of Halal Food from the Seller’s Perspective

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to identify the critical factors affecting the sales of halal food from the seller’s perspective. This study surveyed the sellers of halal food in Korea and intended to extract the factors they perceived important for sales. Design/Methodology/Approach - The methodology used in this research was to survey the sellers of halal food in Korea and analyze the collected data using exploratory factor analysis to extract the critical factors affecting the sales of halal food. The survey questions were developed from the past literature about halal food. Findings - The survey questionnaire included the questions about the twelve factors affecting purchasing decisions of halal food from the past literature. The exploratory factor analysis extracted clear-cut eight factors: halal supply chain, exposure, halal certification, product ingredient, religiosity, religious beliefs, halal knowledge, and brand awareness. From the intensive interview with ten sellers, we found they perceived product ingredients, halal knowledge, religiosity, halal certification, halal supply chain as important in order among the eight factors. The religious beliefs, brand awareness was regarded less important, that shows brand recognition for halal food is not recognised yet. Research Implications - This study showed what factors the sellers perceived as important for the sales of halal food. In contrast to the past research, this study examined the critical factors affecting the sales of halal food from the seller’s perspective and found they were slightly different from the critical factors from the customer’s perspective.