Purpose: Farmers’ selection of vegetable marketing channels directly affects their income and is important to stable vegetable supply and food control. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the farmers’ selection behavior of vegetable marketing channels, and to determine the key factors which affected farmer’ decision making.Design/methodology/approach: A total of 191 valid questionnaires were collected from 50 villages in seven main vegetable production districts in Beijing urban areas from September to December 2015, yielding a response rate of 86.8 percent. The multinomial logit model was used for analysis in this study.Findings: The results revealed that the farmers mainly selected farmers’ market, cooperative, and wholesaler to sell their vegetables, which comprised 96.57 percent of total vegetable sales. Estimation results showed that cooperative, vegetable acreage, price satisfaction, and slow sales were most important factors which influence positively the probability of opting to sell vegetables at a cooperative rather than at the farmer’s market. For wholesalers, gender of the household head and cooperative had most significantly negative effect, and age had a positive impact on farmer’s choice of market channels.Originality/value: The results and implications obtained in the present study could help policymakers to establish a scientific-based and reasonable policy to encourage vegetable producers to participate in the circulation of vegetables in Beijing and guarantee their income in vegetable supply chain. The suggestions of this study could also be used for the improvement of the vegetable sector in other cities facing similar issues.

Purpose: Vegetable e-commerce is of great significance for improving the efficiency of vegetable circulation, and for solving the problems of high circulation cost and poor connection between production and marketing. The purpose of this study is to explore the key factors that influence consumers’ vegetable e-commerce adoption willingness, behavior, and willingness-behavior consistency.Design/methodology/approach: A total of 427 valid questionnaires were collected from 16 districts of Beijing in 2019 via the internet, yielding a response rate of 94.9%. Bivariate probit and binary logistic regression were used for analysis.Findings: The results show that 62.84% of vegetable e-commerce consumers have the same willingness and behavior, and 37.16% of consumers have a deviation of willingness and behavior; the key factors influencing the willingness, behavior, and willingness-behavior consistency of vegetable e-commerce consumers are different. The three variables of usefulness perception, logistics service quality perception, and nearest vegetable market distance have significant effects on and are positively correlated with the adoption willingness, behavior, and willingness-behavior consistency of vegetable e-commerce consumers.Research limitations/implications: Consumers in Beijing, a first-tier city, were taken as the research object in this study. Second-tier and even third-tier cities can be investigated as comparative studies in a follow-up study. In addition, the key factors that affect the differences in the willingness and behavior of vegetable e-commerce adoption can be studied.Originality/value: The results obtained in the present study and their implications could aid in vegetable e-commerce optimization, and contribute to the understanding of how to improve consumers’ awareness and participation in vegetable e-commerce. The suggestions of this study could also be used for the improvement of vegetable e-commerce in other cities facing similar issues.