A Minor Project Report

On

Title : Impact of COVID 19 PANDEMIC ON Consumer Behavior

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 CONTENTS

S.No Title Name Page No.

1 Chapter 1 Introduction

2 Chapter 2 Review Of Literature

3 Chapter 3 Research Methodology

4 Chapter 4 Data Analysis & Interpretation

5 Chapter 5 Findings & Conclusion

References

Appendix

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 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

In the 75-years of history, global health crisis is faced by humanity with COVID-19
pandemic.At extreme levels, this pandemic is killing, making human suffer and upsetting
lives of people. COVID-19 pandemic is more than a simple health crisis. It is considered as
the human crisis. Societies are attacked by this crisis at core level. Mortality rate is extremely
high in this COVID19 disease. More than 210 countries as well as regions are occupied by
the unbearable influences of this pandemic which resulted to the widest pandemic in the
whole world. On January 30, 2020 WHO announced public health emergency as it is the
international crisis. WHO also asked all the countries to collaborate and support in rapid
prevention from spread of COVID-19 for the response to this critical situation happened in
all over the world. COVID-19 is declared as pandemic by WHO on march 11, 20202. (Celik
et al., 2020)
Because of the pandemic, it was suggested to the whole world by all the medical agencies,
especially by WHO to maintain a safe distance and wear masks in order to kill the
contamination. To stop the pandemic, governments of nearly all the countries effectively
implemented lockdown in their respective countries. All the people around the world were
restrained in their houses and in addition, their respective work places were shut down.
Moreover, all the business places were asked to close and were advised not to do business
until next announcement. This was the first time when all the types of business were globally
asked to shut down for indefinite time period. It caused havoc in the business market and
made the whole business community unstable. (Queiroz et al., 2020)
Even after the pandemic, when the businesses were allowed to re-open, they were only
permitted to use their partial force to operate. Governments first allowed e-commerce
business sector to open as they had the minimum person to person contact and was easy to
avoid any type of gathering. This reduced the chances of spreading of pandemic. Even till
date, workers need to maintain the social distancing policy at their respective work places.
This social distancing and other impacts caused because of the pandemic have changed the
buyers’ perspective to purchase things. But before understanding the present market, it is
important to study the former market (i.e. before the pandemic) and buyers’ purchasing
strategies at that time for understanding the difference among both periods.
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1.1 Market before the pandemic

In India, before this COVID-19 crisis, each major exchange in market capitalization was
about $2.16 trillion or even more than that. 8 to 10 stocks was the limited stock market rally
within the large caps in 2019. In the year 2019, 14% was returned by the Sensex excluding
dividends. Bluechip companies have been prominently featured without whom the Sensex
return would be negative which are TCS, Infosys, HDFC bank, Kotak bank, Reliance, ICICI
bank and Hindustan Unilever. Overall recovery has been also observed in the starting of year
2020 as both Bombay stock Exchange and NSE traded their highest level by hitting the
peaks of 42,273 as well as 12,362 respectively. It was expected that more than 30 countries
at the starting of year 2020 who were expecting to file IPO’s. In mid-January after observing
the records high, favorable marketing conditions were assumed.(Praveen Kumar, 2020)
Other market sectors were also blooming and were showing growth and opportunities. Food
market has always been a profit running business. A food business makes a lot of money
despite much effect from its size or location. Even small food vendors use to make enough
money to survive for their living. The street vendors were always occupied especially during
evening time. The bigger restaurants contributed a lot towards the financial growth of the
country through paying taxes. This growth is evident by looking at the growth of the FMCG
companies. Alike food sector, General and cosmetics stores were also a blooming business.
Reports from over the years confirm the growth of this sector. People preferred to buy their
daily-need products from this market. E-commerce business sector was having a good run
and other business sectors were also growing. Every business has its pros and cons and every
business has the ability to earn money. It all depends over the consumer behaviour. Before
COVID-19, everything was dependent over the market’s ups and downs. COVID-19 and
lockdown changed a lot in the market especially the purchasing behaviour of the consumers.

1.2 Impact of COVID-19 over the market

Markets are in fear with the strike of COVID-19 as there is no assurance. From the Global
Financial Crises happened in 2008, the level of markets is not witnessed around the crashing
world. With global market’s indices and trends, the strong correlation is followed as by 38
percent, Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex fell down. From the starting of the year, 27.31% of the
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 staggering is lost by the total Market Capitalization. The sentiments are reflected by the
stock market happened because of this pandemic which are domestic, foreign and investors.
In the last few months, companies are stepping back because of the negligible growth
experienced by them which have also affected the compensations of employee and
multiplied the layoff. More than 40% of the stocks have been plummeted of some companies
and adverse impact is also observed in the sectors like entertainment, tourism and hospitality.
(Praveen Kumar, 2020)
Apart from this, all sectors of businesses were also highly affected unlike any other time in
history. Though few gained their business but most have lost their earnings.
In ages, this pandemic of COVID-19 which came with the name of public health emergency
was not seen. This emergency was transformed into a supply shock and after some time on
an unprecedented scale, this was transformed into a private consumption contraction. “Brain
and Company” and also the “People Research on India’s Consumer Economy” has provided
a data through weekly survey that steady and deep decline in demand and also in consumers
sentiments is observed in about 500 households which are present at different locations and
economic strata. Week-on-week decline was reported by more than 40% of the households
had declined the consumption after the two weeks of national lockdown. Although low-
income families felt the effect of income early on, more wealthy households highlighted the
lack of accessibility as the biggest restriction on expenditure, since most stores remained
closed. In the last week of march, week-on-week decline was observed in traditional markets
and digital market of about 8percent and 64percent as per the report published by Nielsen in
April 2020.
Weekly reduction was observed by Indian households after the lockdown of completely one
month. The reason behind it is not that the spread of pandemic is wider but there were many
reasons also. The major reason behind this decline is reduction in salary and uncertainties in
the jobs and 1 out of 4 households expect future financial stress.
It was concerning because spending on these groups accounts for more than half of the
entire basket, including for families with lower and middle incomes, with their share as big
as about 67 percent for households with higher incomes. Until the improvement in financial
situation, these spends will probably stay subdued.

1.3 Effect over the consumers’ financial status

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 Nowadays consumers want to track their money through digital medium and also they are
becoming careful in spending in India as well as globally. The countries which are impacted
by COVID-19 observe great variation in the sentiments of consumers. In comparison to rest
of the world, high optimism is reported in the consumers of Indonesia, China and India.
However, after COVID-19 the countries who are less optimistic about their economic
conditions are Japan and Europe. Since mid-July, with the rise in confirmed cases of
COVID- 19, optimism has declined completely in European countries, except in Italy.
Personal as well as economic lives became upending due to the roots taken by the COVID-
19 pandemic majorly in every part of the globe. Some countries have controlled the new
cases after the crisis of COVID-19 for six months, while some are still facing the pandemic.
Various countries have assumed that this pandemic is going to remain a fact of life for the
predictable future; so varies countries have reopened their economic life, economies and also
permitting public to return to their work life and play.(Queiroz et al., 2020)
Negative impact is observed for the health by the assessments of decision makers across the
globe during the time of June; while from May many countries had improved their
hospitalities. In almost all the countries, the next three months from May-June reported
improvements. The financial health of standing makers remained weak for more time. From
30 to 80percent fall in income as well as saving is reported across the globe about the
household financial decision makers. Moreover, around 20 to 60percent of the decision
makers indicated that in most of the countries they feel fear for their current jobs or source of
incomes.
Since the survey of May, in different areas like service quality of banks fir the customers and
the way of engaging with banks has changed little from the survey of May. In this crisis, the
only demand of customers to banks is the tangible support such as allowing skipping the loan
payments for few months, not taking late fees and reduction in minimum payments. It is also
observed that digital forms are major in use for the payments instead of cash payments. As
cash transactions has more chances to transmit the virus; so digital payment would be ideal
for avoiding those interactions. It was also observed that various banks are meeting the
expectations of customers in most of the countries but they are not able to exceed them, at
least on a net basis.

1.4 Change in consumers’ perspective

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A person who find outs his desires or needs and after that purchases the product and at last
disposes off in the consumption procedure is defined as the consumer. On various
parameters like housing, agriculture, industrial goods & service; the utilities of the
consumers depend. The behavior of consumer is formed by the when he/she is influenced by
various factors which are internal as well as external. Continuous decision making method is
important for finding, buying, using, analyzing and at last disposition of products and
services with determines the consumer behavior.
The consumer behavior which is explained by the approach is divided into the three groups:
Psychological-based on the relationship between the psyche as well as consumer behavior; in
different situations, the reaction of consumers which is devoted by the sociological approach
or it can also depend on the various social leaders, social occasions which influences the
behavior; the requirements of the consumers are dependent on economic approach which is
grounded on the basic knowledge or ideas. Moreover, on the basis of consumers’ interest, the
market are traded and confronted. (Valaskova et al., 2015)
In every aspect our life has been changed by the COVUD-19 pandemic; and no exception is
left on the spending of the consumer. In general, across all industries, spending is assumed to
be down due to the restrictions of lockdown as spending became limited due to the shutting
down of shops and restaurants. Air travel was also suspended during this time. Moreover,
due to this pandemic the consumers are restricted to spend more and in the coming months
consumers are expecting that their household income might fall. Due to lockdown, we have
spent more time indoors which resulted to spend more time in home entertainments and
groceries.
After this pandemic, consumers didn’t stop to spend globally and some are spending more in
comparison to pre pandemic time on household supplies and grocery items.
In India, among respondents online shopping became the preference importantly. From the
survey, it is observed that consumers from almost every part of the world would prefer to
spend their expenditures on at-home entertainment products because of the change in media
consumption habits. Korea can be the best example for this as it already boasted its massive
gaming culture. In restaurants and outdoor entertainments, alarming decline has been
observed through categories.
Tightening of travel restrictions and mass social isolation level is the reason for predictable
decline in the transportation industry as well as travel industry. Higher level of optimization
are displayed by the consumers in India as spends are increased by more households

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 planning; which is already in trend in Nigeria, Indonesia as well as china. The buying
behavior of consumers becomes more unpredictable as they have to deal with uncertainties.
It is clear from the behavior of consumers that they have decreased their expenses on
unnecessary products and services. A similar slowdown is also experienced by the apparel;
as in China 40 to 50percent consumption is decreased which is major in comparison to the
pre-pandemic levels.
It was also noticed that this pandemic COVID-19 has not impacted every industry equally.
For others, restoring their consumer experience by appealing to evolving standards might
result in a lucrative and maybe much-needed revival. Waiting game is the only choice
remaining for the other different companies.
(Mehta et al., 2020) has analyzed from the published report that major changes occurred in
the behavior of consumer are caused because of the COVID-19 pandemic and during the
lockdown period after the analysis of published survey and in-depth discussion. During the
time of crisis, more literatures were explored to know the reason behind behavioral changes
in the decisionmaking process of consumers.
From the findings of (Accenture, 2020), after the pandemic, the change in behavior of the
consumer will remain same. Moreover, from the crisis consumer must understand the impact
of their shopping choices on environment and health.
For example: It was observed that more time is spent by the 60percent respondent in mental
well-being and self-care. And 6 out of 10 consumers i.e. 57% said that they have started
workout at home; while 64% of the consumers are focusing on controlling the food waste
and they will continue to do the same. About 50% consumers are shopping more health-
consciously and will continue in future; and at last 45% consumers are making more
sustainable choices in shopping and other things.

1.5 Role of online market

The retail market of India is basically divided in between the unorganized sectors; in which
13.8 million conventional family neighbor shops and less than 10 percent are the organized
retail sector included. Online shopping websites as well as brick and mortar stores are all
organizations included in the organized sector. In spite of the success in B2C e-commerce in
India, major portion of Indian population have more faith on brick and mortar shops which
are neighboring as they prefer the products by touching and feeling them and they also feel
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that they can negotiate before buying.
In India, by offering services such as no delivery charges, discounts, buy 1 get 1 free and
exchanging offers, a significant majority of B2C e-commerce retailers attract online
shoppers. Although the shoppers in India are conservative and they become cost-conscious
and count them as the part of their value system or culture; and these types of people are not
attracted by any product and not the quick decision making person on the basis of
advertisements and promotion of the products. However, there are various reasons which
make online shopping a major concern because of customer support services and delay in
product delivery sometimes. An extremely infectious disease is the COVID-19 which is
caused by the novel coronavirus. Corona virus disease is the other name for COVID-19. This
disease has infected more than 4lakh people worldwide as per the present report. The best
way to avoid this disease is by staying home as it spreads when a person comes in contact
with the infected person or it can also spread by touching a place which has a virus. So, use
of online shopping has increased all over the world. It was also observed that there is a rise
in number of first-time-ecommerce-users in India. These are the people who never used
online services for shopping. In 2002, the outbreak of SARS infected more than 2700 people
whichhave dramatically changed the shopping habits of people as they had fear of going out.
It is no surprise that more customers have turned to online shopping to buy the goods they
need and want, as many brick and mortar stores have shut their doors for the time being and
shoppers have a tendency to reduce danger by remaining in their homes.
Industries as well as businesses are disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic around the world. In
unchartered territory or state, the industry of broader consumer is still operating. In shopping
behavior of the customers, rapid and great changes are faced by the industries after the travel
restrictions and limitation of local movement because of the widespread of health concerns.
In last 2 years, consistent increase is observed in the buyer adoption of online CPG shopping.
Pervasive consumer behavior change is observed after the improvement in various factors
such as infrastructure, development as well as experience. A steep change is also observed in
the techniques of consumers shopping after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since this pandemic arose, various industries are at critical situation. The growth of online
shopping will remain constant even after the pandemic as the new normal. It becomes
important for the brands to develop new capabilities for online market for ensuring the
positive experience of the consumers and to achieve the digital corner. It can be achieved by
passing on their valuable propositions in a different way to learn to handle the back end of a

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 digital operation.
(Trong & Tran, 2020) studies samples which are the consumers from Vietnam around 617
from the market. In Vietnam the shopping behavior has changed after the COVID-19
pandemic and the sampling was adopted from the online consumers. From the survey
performed by Nielsen Vietnam in 2020, it was observed that 95% of the consumers are
afraid of coronavirus which increased the online shopping by more than 25%. As customers
are increasingly using digital banking to plan for a potential emergency, on their e-commerce
sites, businesses need to ensure seamless, friction - free, and quick services that meet
customers' expectations.

1.6 Role of social distancing

Major portion of business has shifted from traditional market to e-commerce after the
physical movement became hampered. Now people are increasingly depending on e-
commerce after observing the hike in number of orders placed by the consumers for the
fulfillment of their basic needs or requirements. Speedy actions are taken by the e-commerce
players for the management of rising demand; for example rise in overtime pay and rise in
hourly pay of delivery drivers. Nowadays people will judge any product or brand after the
sanitation practices and hygiene. Therefore, customers demand for the products which
provide them reliable standard of service, while they also take complete accountability of the
staff.
After this pandemic, people are afraid of human contact and public meetings which increases
the demand of online services for the offline existing services. For grocery items, Big-Basket
and Grofer are gaining popularity.
Despite of other activities, gyms and fitness centers are also providing online tutorials and
live online classes for its members. It also provides the facility of live energy tracking meters
to its members such as Cult: Fit.
For online medical consultations, web platforms such as Practo are used by consumers.
Consumers are also forced to accept other secondary channels after the lockdown extended.
Especially high-involvement items are included like electronics, cars as well as other
expensive goods which are replaced by web searching.
In recreational services, behavioral change will be observed where people will demand for
new age forms, relevant and dynamic types of entertainment at their homes instead of going
out for the same. This outbreak would force the user to adjust their behavior to leave little

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 space for interpersonal relationships and substitute it with a higher rate of consumption of
digital technology.
(Dickson & MacLachlan, 1990) has made a research design for providing the basis for
knowing the store avoidance behavior by re-conceptualizing the social distancing between
the consumer and the shopkeeper. An analysis of shoppers divided into 2 distinct social
groups analyzed their views of two stores which had been chosen as representations of
upscale and downscale merchants, using social class images. A new technique for social
distancing was proposed and estimated. Price and personnel are the two different functional
aspects which must be controlled; so social distancing technique was found to be influential.
It was also observed that people want to avoid stores because they are afraid if virus and
want to keep socially distant from others.

1.7 Strategies for market recovery

The short-term reaction of trade recovery efforts is based on strengthening vital and systemically
relevant sectors that, amid global breakdowns in the value chain, continue to grow. The
sectors which are included here are pharmaceutical, agriculture & food processing industry,
IT industry and sanitary industry. Support functions required to succeed in a low-touch
society, like transportation, logistics management as well as e-commerce, is also discussed.
The results of this pandemic are the uncertainties which are created but despite of that the
strategy is to the partner countries to grow these sectors. This strategy will help them to
navigate trade disturbances after identifying the tailor-made solutions such as shifts in
production capacity, export bans as well as uncertain trade relations. In the short-term, the
approach will support partner countries:
 The trade impact of COVID-19 pandemic must be identified specially its key export sectors,
specifically SMEs.
 New business relations as well as distribution channels must be identified such as foreign and
domestic
 While following the safety measures, for maintaining the flow of goods trade restrictions must
be managed and digital supply chain must be developed.
 For enhancing the transport, managing risk and for logistic capabilities, roadmaps must be
developed.
 For continues working, ICT tools and digital channels control for ensuring the MSME’s
capacity.  For new sanitary and rules for work safety, capacity and processes must be built;
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 in export markets, compliance with health, SPS and other different voluntary standards in
food-safety compliance.
(Ibn-Mohammed et al., 2020) suggested in a study that in the long run, short-term policies are
not the sustainable model with the urgency of this pandemic. However, it becomes important to
focus on the critical issues such as the link between the transportation and environmental
pollution. The major reason for the spread of pandemic is the unrestricted air travel; due to
decrease in passenger volumes, the sectors like aviation and tourism are thumped. The aviation
sector will be re-shaped by the fallout in which tourism economically became hardest to hit. A
new generation of employees and service providers gave birth to the sharing economy model
and Peer-to-peer model which are considered to be non-resilient to global systemic shocks.
Reduction in cargo shipping is observed because of the urgency of supply and demand which is
in favor of airfreights in which the cost of per kg transatlantic tripled in a night. Major rise in
poverty level globally, job losses and inequalities in income are matched with this. For particular
industries/professions, the practicality of working remotely has been tried and proven with its
related effects on reduced commuting for employees. In general, remote healthcare and remote
working are not considered to be unfeasible as it has been working successfully since the last
four months when it was complete lockdown globally. Due to shutting down of economic and
manufacturing activities, reduction in primary energy consumption is observed and the remote.
education is also not questioned. In improving industries such as IoT, robotics and automation
potential as well as the in streamlining supplier selection procedure, utilization of big data
analytics and cloud computing are appreciated. Logistics as well as supplier relationship
management is also appreciated nowadays.

1.8 Role of mass media and social media

During the time of pandemic it was never in the history possible to communicate as quickly as it
is possible today. For transmission of information, social media platform is the significant
piece. Moreover, there are numerous benefits and limitations which must be also considered.
For the very first time in history, this tool is responsibly used in new scientific researches,
for quick transfer of important information, for sharing diagnostics and treatment as well as
for different approaches worldwide by not considering any geographical boundaries.
During the COVID-19 era, social media became the great advantage for rapid transfer for
education content by making information graphic for the patients who are suspected or
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 confirmed positive about corona virus. The information was spread by using twitter,
Whatsapp and Wechat type facilities. In addition to the distribution, demands for its
translation into more than ten languages were obtained in a few days, enabling the info
graphic to be tailored to the specifics of each healthcare environment.
“Bubble filter” is the concept proposed by Rowland in 2011 which became the major obstacle
for the dissemination of data and also for social media. It tells us about the “personalized
ecosystem”, in which the data is collected from the same user and after that preference are
predicted as per the requirement and results are than considered with the likes of the user. A
loop of same type of content is produced by these bubbles which restricts the user from
seeing for different information. This definition refers to any situation or disease that is
found in internet search engines or on social media channels such as Facebook & Twitter.
(Rowland, 2011) From the study which was conducted by (Cuiyan Wang et. al, 2020) in China
in which 1210 were the respondents for the survey which was conducted on the online
platform. From the survey it was observed that 53.8percent of the respondents feel that this
pandemic was moderate or severe; even a scale called “Fear of COVID Scale” was also
developed by a research group. (Ahorsu et al., 2020) This scale was used by the researcher to
measure the level of stress and anxiety among people and also to prevent the sequels
associated for establishing the relatable measures like in 2003 in Asia, the Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic happened which gave rise to the post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) followed by depressive disorders (Mak et al., 2009). In certain parts
of the world, such as India, UK, Germany, and Italy, other more serious diseases or accidents
such as suicides have been reported already. (Thakur & Jain, 2020)

COVID-19 is the biggest health crisis we are facing in our lifetimes and probably the largest
humanitarian crisis since World War 2. COVID-19 is going to have an unprecedented impact
on the world and has brought the world to a standstill, wreaking havoc on the global
economy. This was bound to affect consumerism. Physical retail shops have witnessed a
drastic slump in footfalls. Pandemic has restricted many of the physical movements. This
research has been carried out with the purpose of analyzing consumer behaviour during
COVID-19 pandemic Pandemic and what are going to be its implications on the market of
certain services in the long term. Consumer behaviour analysis is of extreme significance for
an economy and hence, the paper aims to study these patterns which will be crucial to
examine the economic growth post the pandemic. This research will provide significant
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inputs to the suppliers of these services who can use it to gauge the consumer behaviour and
can utilize it to their benefit. The research is based on a hypothesis of the anticipated
consumer behaviour after the Pandemic ends augmented by a survey regarding consumer
preferences that have been analyzed using statistical tools.
All of the consumption is time bound and location based. As mentioned by (Sheth, 2020a,
Sheth, 2020) with time habits are developed by consumers regarding what to consume, where
and when. Obviously, this is restricted to only consumption. This is also accurate for looking
for information, shopping and post-consumption disposal of waste. IT IS easy to predict
consumer behavior, and there are many predictive models to do so and on basis of past
repetitive buying behavior at the individual level we can see through the consumer insights.
However, consumption is also contextual along with being habitual. Consumer habits are
governed and disrupted by four major contexts and context matters. Changes in the social
context life events such as wedding, having children and shifting from one to another city are
the first. Friends, neighbors, workplace and community is included under the social context.
Technology is the second context.

Old habits are eventually broken with the emergence of break-through technologies. In the
recent year’s invention and innovation of cell phones, internet, and e-commerce are the latest
breakthrough In technology. The way we shop, search and order online is drastically
affected. Rules and regulations related to public and their consumption habits are affected it
is the third context also mutually shared spaces and de-consumption of products that are
unhealthy. For instance, consumption by location regulated by consumption of alcohol,
smoking and so. Public policy can of-course inspire consumption of products that are
societally good and services like electric cars , solar energy also vaccines for children and
also mandatory auto and home insurance services .
Natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and global pandemic including Covid-19
comes under the fourth and less predictable context. In the same way there are civil wars,
regional conflicts also global wars that happened in the past such as the cold war, the Great
Depression, World War II and the Great Recession of 2008–2009. THE above mentioned
interrupted consumption also supplies chain and production.

CONSUMERS’ ONLINE BUYING BEHAVIOUR

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 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Consumer behaviour is the study of how individual consumers, groups or organizations select,
buy and dispose ideas, products and services, in accordance to their needs and wants. It alludes
to the intentions of the consumer in the marketplace and underlying motives behind those
actions undertaken.
In simple words, consumer behvaiouur studies the decision making process of and individual
consumer as well as that of an organization, with regards to external factors affecting it.
CONSUMERS’ ONLINE BUYING BEHAVIOUR / CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDE ON
ONLINE SHOPPING

DEFINITION:
Consumers’ attitude is a directly influenced factor that affects the consumers’ buying
willingness. Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) describe attitude towards a behaviour as a person’s
evaluation of a specified behaviour involving an object or outcome. For example, a person may
hate to use a computer to play an online game where using the computer to play the online
game is the behaviour and the individual’s feeling is the attitude.
Attitude towards a behaviour has been found to be strongly related to a particular behaviour
(Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). There is a model of attitudes and shopping intention towards
online shopping that was developed by Jarvenpaa and Todd (1997). This model includes
numerous indicators that can be categorized into four classifications: the value of the product,
the shopping experience, the quality of service provided by e-shop and the risk perceptions of
online retail shopping. Vellido, Lisboa and Meehan (2000) summarized quite a few factors
relating to consumers’ perception of online shopping. The factors of risk perception of users,
convenience of online shopping, control over, affordability of goods, ease of use of the
shopping site, and customer service were included.

FACTORS AFFECTING CONSUMERS’ ONLINE SHOPPING ATTITUDE:

Several significant factors that can influence consumers’ attitude towards online shopping are
as follows:

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1. Perceived Usability: Usability refers to the extent to which a website facilitates users to
utilize its functions easily and appropriately). Web usability can be defined as making
the design simple enough so that customers, who by nature tend to be goal-driven, can
accomplish their task as quickly and painlessly as possible. Online shopping is based on
the Internet and the website is the basic platform of online transaction. Therefore,
website usability has a significant impact on online consumers’ perceptions and e-shop
success. Several factors to measure the usability of websites, are ease of use, response
time, navigation, interaction, design, convenience, learnability, efficiency, site
findability and accessibility.

2. Perceived Security: Salisbury, Pearson, Pearson and Miller (2001) defined perceived
security on the Web as "the extent to which one believes that the World Wide Web is
secure for transmitting sensitive information". According to their studies, they believed
that purchase intention online was influenced by the security of e-transactions. They
also found that perceived security was positively associated with online purchase
intention. A similar finding from the research of Elliot and Fowell (2000) showed that
the consumers’ perception of security-related issues was one of the most important
factors in purchasing from a website. As a result, security has become one of the most
important reasons that cause consumers to hesitate or fear using e-purchase and it has
played a dominant role in influencing their attitude towards online shopping.

3. Perceived Privacy: In respect of the definition of privacy, personal information is

always of great concern. A general definition of personal information is "data not
otherwise available via public sources" (Beatty, 1996). Online privacy concerns often
arise through a website operator's collection and dissemination of personally identifiable
information about an individual consumer who has visited a particular website
(Hatch,2000).Smith et al. (1996) identified four factors of online privacy: unauthorized
secondary use of personal information, improper access of digitally stored personal
information, collection of personal information, and errors in collected personal
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 information. Metzger and Docter (2003) considered online privacy concerns to include
anonymity, intrusion, surveillance, and autonomy. In sum, there are many factors that
are hard to control in protecting consumers’ privacy in the virtual environment. Thus, in
comparing with traditional offline privacy, online privacy is more difficult to protect.
That is the reason why many consumers still refuse to accept online shopping.

4. Perceived After-sales Service Quality: The definition of ‘After-sales Service’ is the

delivery service for sending products to a customer after payment, technical support
after sales, etc. (Cao and Gruca, 2004). Sparks and Legault (1993) summarized two
types of services after the sale: anticipated services and unanticipated services.
Anticipated services are those that the customer plans for, such as installation, training,
written instructions, maintenance, and upgrading. The maintenance of the sold-out
products such as repairs, returns, and replacements are the service that is categorized as
unanticipated service (Sparks and Legault, 1993). Posselt and Gerstner (2005) assessed
the impact of the presale and post-sale stages on online satisfaction.

5. Perceived Marketing Mix: McCarthy (2002) classified marketing activities as

marketing-mix tools of four broad kinds, which they called the 4Ps of marketing:
product, price, promotion and place. While the value and current standing of the mix as
a marketing toolkit is frequently disputed, marketing practitioners widely deem the 4Ps
as the tools that can influence the consumers’ behaviour and the final outcome of the
buyer-seller interaction (Dixon and Blois, 1983; Gronroos, 1994; Gummesson, 1997;
Goldsmith, 1999; Kotler and Armstrong, 2001; Kotler, 2003; Brassington and Pettitt,
2003). Constantinides (2002) summarized that online buyer’s behaviour of purchasing
merchandise and services in e-shops can be influenced by the marketing mix of online
vendors.

6. Perceived Reputation: The concept of reputation has been looked at from many
different perspectives, such as Applied Economics (Shapiro, 1983) or Strategic
Management (Fombrum and Shanley, 1990). Brand equity or vendor’s trustworthiness
is always allied with the idea of reputation from a marketing standpoint (Aaker, 1996;
Herbig and Milewicz, 1993; Hyde and Gosschalk, 2005). The role of reputation in the
virtual environment is more important than the traditional market environment. In the
17
 virtual environment, consumers cannot directly examine the goods before they purchase.
They can only obtain the information about the product from the website and trust the
product description of vendor. Therefore, the reputation of online vendor has become a
significant factor that influences consumers’ attitude towards online shopping. The
research of Houser and Wooders (2000), Dewan and Hsu (2001), Kalyanam and
Mclntyre (2001), McDonald and Slawson (2002), and Melnik and Aim (2002) have all
shown that a seller's overall reputation often has a positive and statistically significant
impact on the consumers’ willingness to adopt online purchase.

IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON CONSUMERS’ ONLINE BUYING

BEHAVIOUR
E-commerce business is taking place when buyer and seller conduct their business transactions
with the help of internet. The term electronic commerce or e-commerce refers to any sort of
business transaction that involves the transfer of information through the internet. E- commerce
businesses are of following major types like
1. Business-to-Business (B2B)
2. Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
3. Business-to-Government (B2G)
4. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
5. ) Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce).

E-commerce‟ and „online shopping‟ are often used interchangeably but at its core ecommerce
is much broader than this – it embodies a concept for doing business online, incorporating a
multitude of different services e.g. making online payments, booking flights etc.
E-commerce has experienced rapid growth since its humble beginnings with e-commerce sales

18
projected to grow to 599.2 billion USD by 2024. The COVID-19 outbreak saw e--commerce
sales spiked 25% in March 2020 alone. The power of e-commerce should not be
underestimated as it continues to pervade everyday life and present significant opportunities for
small, medium, and large businesses and online investors. It is not needed to look far to see the
potential of e-commerce businesses. Amazon, for example, which set the standard for
customer-orientated websites as well as a lean supply chain, is selling over 4000 items a minute
from SMBs alone.

Benefits for People Buying ‘Online’:-

1. Lower Prices: Managing an online storefront is far cheaper than an offline, brick and
mortar store. Typically less staff are required to manage an online shop as web-based
management systems enable owners to automate inventory management and
warehousing is not necessarily required. As such, e-commerce business owners can
afford to pass operational cost savings on to consumers (in the form of product or
service discounts) whilst protecting their overall margin. Furthermore, with the rise of
price comparison websites, consumers have more transparency with regard to prices and
are able to shop around, typically purchasing from online outlets instead.

2. Accessibility and Convenience: Unlike many offline stores, consumers can access
ecommerce websites 24 hours a day. Customers can read about services, browse
products and place orders whenever they wish. In that sense, online shopping is
extremely convenient and gives the consumer more control. Furthermore, those living in
more remote areas are able to order from their home at a touch of a button, saving them
time travelling to a shopping centre.

3. Wider Choice: For the past twenty years, the growth of online shopping has to a large
extent been based around increased choice. With an almost endless choice of brands and
products to choose from, consumers are not limited by the availability of specific
products in their local town, city or country. Items can be sourced and shipped globally.
Interestingly, one recent study found that consumers are actually starting to become
frustrated by e-commerce sites that offer too much choice. Whichever way you look at it
though, more choice has likely been a good thing over the long term.

19
While one Forbes survey data shows that women are more likely to be concerned about
the effects of COVID-19, it also shows that men are more likely to have it impact their
shopping behaviours. One-third of men, compared to 25% of women, reported the
pandemic affecting how much they spend on products. Additionally, 36% of men,
compared to 28% of women, reported it affecting how much they are spending on
experiences (travel, restaurants, entertainment, etc.).

The Indian retail market is greatly divided up between the unorganised sector, which
includes about 13.8 million conventional family run neighbourhood stores and the
organised retail sector with a share less than 10%. The organised sector includes all
organized brick & mortar stores and online shopping sites. Despite the boom in B2C e-
commerce sector in India, majority of Indians continue to have more faith in the
neighbourhood brick & mortar stores for shopping as they prefer touching and feeling
the products and negotiating discounts over-the-counter, before buying. In India, a great
majority of B2C ecommerce retailers draw customers to shop online by offering
bargains such as free delivery, discounts, buy-one-getone-free and exchange offers.

However, many Indian shoppers known to be cost-conscious and conservative as a part

of their value system, are generally not attracted into making quick decisions based on
promotions and advertisements. Moreover, online shoppers, many- atimes, come across
problems concerning product delivery timelines and customer support services.
Customers‟ perception of risk toward online web sites is aggravated due to the inferior
IT set-up used by several e-tailers, resulting in hacking of personal information.

Enter the novel corona virus which causes a highly infectious disease Corona virus
disease (COVID-19) that has infected millions of people worldwide. Since it spreads
primarily through contact with an infected person (when they cough or sneeze) or when
a person touches a surface that has the virus on it, the best way to guard against it was to
stay at home. This increased online shopping usage, globally. In India, it has led to a rise
in the number of FTUs or first-time-ecommerce-users in India, who had been so far
inhibited to shop online. The SARS outbreak that infected over 2700 people in 2002, too
is known to have dramatically changed people’s shopping habits as they were afraid of
shopping outdoors.
20
On 25th March, 2020, Big Basket - a key online grocery player in India had the
following message “We'll be back soon! We are currently experiencing unprecedented
demand. In light of this, we are restricting access to our website to existing customers
only. Please try again in a few hours.” So overwhelming was the response that it faced a
breakdown due to a steep increase in demand amid COVID-19. Grofers – a rival, had a
similar kind of message which said “Due to the sudden rush, we have stopped servicing
many locations, but we are working to increase capacity and will be resuming
operations shortly.” Amazon – one of the leading ecommerce players in the country, and
the world, has announced on its site that the customers are relying on them like never
before in their social distancing and self-quarantine efforts. Hence during the pandemic
Amazon temporarily prioritized its available fulfilment and logistics capacity to serve
essentials such as household staples, packaged food, health care, hygiene, personal
safety and other high priority products. It stopped taking orders for lower-priority
products. Globally too Amazon saw a surge in orders and raised overtime pay for
associates working in its warehouses, during the corona virus outbreak.

This spike in B2C ecommerce in India was of course due to existing online shoppers
stocking up on essentials given the corona virus outbreak and the lockdown imposed by
the Government (to check its spread). However it also consists of perhaps two more
segments – apart from the one that buys online, regularly. A segment that did not shop
online, given the inhibiting factors detailed in the beginning of this article and another
segment that up till now, was either ignorant about online shopping or did not have a
device or data plan. It would be interesting to check – how many shoppers from these
two segments switch to online shopping, even after the corona virus crises is over.

The present pandemic situation has an adverse deep impact on Indian business (Das, D.
K., and Patnaik, S., 2020) the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis affects different sectors in
different ways. Production, transportation, and distribution based companies are the
worst-hit (https://pharmascope.org) this crisis is going to affect the economy as never
before leading to massive psycho-social impacts as well (Singh, D. P,2020) The impact
of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy has been devastating. With millions forced

21
 to stay at home and retail shops, except those providing essential services, shut, analysts
claim that the pandemic will have long-term consequences on consumer behavior
(PunitaLal, R. M, 2020) According to a survey about the impact of the coronavirus
(COVID-19) on Indians in March 2020, a majority of respondents had no critical non-
essential purchases during the lockdown. About 56 percent needed home supplies, and
most of these needed them ordered online. In contrast, about eight percent each for
online and local purchases required electronics in order to attend online classes or be
able to work from home (Keelery, P. B, 2020).

IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON CONSUMERS’ ONLINE BUYING

BEHAVIOUR INTERNATIONALLY

The global economy in general and international trade in particular have suffered and continue
to suffer massive losses from the coronavirus pandemic. The uncertainty in which businesses
and end consumers found themselves immersed is further aggravated by multiple factors.
Those include income decline, cross-border travel restrictions, shifting consumer demand, and
the changing behavior of market actors, to name a few . Global lockdown, social distancing,
and other measures introduced to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have urged
consumers to purchase more on the online marketplaces. The business landscape faced rapid
transformations during the quarantine period as a result. Ultimately, the corona crisis
accelerated the development of digital commerce. Globally, a new digitally immersed
consumer has emerged, a more selective one, with financial difficulties.
Income losses, limited transport opportunities, and pandemic mitigation measures, which
caused the reduction of supplier activities, have forced B2B manufacturers and sellers to

22
reduce production and marketing costs, find new suppliers both abroad and within the country,
and accelerate decision making. National companies received opportunities to diversify their
product portfolio for the purposes of import substitution and to supply other firms and branches
of foreign companies with necessary resources. B2C markets, on the other hand, encountered a
decline in purchasing power and cross-border mobility. On top of that, consumers shifted
toward health and safety while maintaining a preference for inexpensive goods and services.
Products that bring comfort and a sense of coziness to a living space received more attention
than they normally would. Overall, the uncertainty and unpredictability of the situation made
consumers postpone some of their demands. The industrial market and consumer market both
faced a need to accelerate digitalization and make it easy to find and purchase items online.
The pandemic sparked a meteoric rise in online sales. As visits to physical stores were
restricted, and many were running low on money, consumers went online to shop, causing
online purchases to grow higher and higher. Consumers were generally mindful shoppers even
before the pandemic. Because of this, some shopping categories such as experiences were
gradually downgraded on their priority lists, and COVID-19 accelerated things in this
direction.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected societies and economics around the
world and has hit various sectors of society in different ways. This unprecedented situation has
several consequences for the everyday life of consumers and has dramatically changed how
businesses act and consumers behave (Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020; Pantano et al., 2020). The
surveys carried out after the first wave have argued that consumers across the globe are looking
at products and brands through a new lens (Accenture, 2020; McKinsey, 2020). The conducted
study examines the antecedents and dynamics of impulse buying patterns in the rise of
COVID-19 and assesses the impact of the impulse purchasing behaviour of Czech citizens
during this situation based on fear (cf. Ahmed et al., 2020; Iyer et al., 2020).
The situation, after the first wave and at the beginning of the second wave of the COVID-19
pandemic in Europe, has made many consumers reconsider their established buying and
shopping habits or even to learn new one (Sheth, 2020). Due to the extraordinary containment
measures, some consumers for instance have had to move to online shopping, home-deliveries
or cashless payment, which they never considered before (Pantano et al., 2020). There is a need
for retail managers and marketers to monitor the changes in consumers’ shopping behaviour

23
 and habits to understand which changes in strategies they need to adopt (Verma and
Gustafsson, 2020).

WHAT POLICY DOES INDIA HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE CRISIS:

Examining other countries' policy responses to protect their economies during the

pandemic will be a good place to start. These policy responses can be generally

classified into the following categories, according to the International Monetary

Fund's policy tracker (which monitors main economic responses to the Covid-19

pandemic across 192 economies).

A. advance assurances and prompt liquidity arrangement;

B. credit augmentations and punishment waivers on reimbursement postponements

and financing cost decreases on future advances.

In accordance with the worldwide reaction, the Government of India sliced loan

fees, expanded cutoff points on Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) to forestall setting

off indebtedness, and offered instalments from the public a lot of Employee

Provident Fund (EPF) to stay away from cutbacks. A few driving banks have

reported specific reason credits at diminished rates for up to 10-20% of the

organizations' functioning capital cutoff.

While these strategy measures are empowering, they are one-sided towards the

bigger, and more formal/coordinated firms. Nonetheless, the actions are lacking for

the more modest, casual/disorderly firms, which structure a dominant part of India's

modern scene. As per the Economic Census information, more than 95% of firms

(more than 55 million firms) utilized less than five specialists, and 94% were not

enlisted with the public authority. Hence, it is far- fetched that these little firms add to

EPF and may not profit by the Government's commitment to EPFO.

Furthermore, over 81% MSMEs are self-financed with just around 7% getting from
24
formal foundations and government sources (Economic Census, 2013). Credit

market mediations (less expensive advances, expanded cutoff points on NPAs)

subsequently may not profit this area straightforwardly. Since most MSMEs

fundamentally work on cash, they require quick liquidity to adapt to unfavourable

occasions. Besides, numerous miniature endeavours are little, family run

organizations. Given that different areas of the economy and specifically, occasional

movement and agribusiness, are seriously hit by the lockdown, permitting these

miniature undertakings to work easily could significantly help families adapt to this

financial stun. Subsequently, more straightforward proportions of liquidity might be

the need of great importance, like the activity of the Confederation of Indian

Industries (CII) that sets up an asset focused on straightforwardly at facilitating the

liquidity imperatives of MSMEs. Finally, MSMEs are spatially concentrated, with

about 30% of MSMEs based in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, and about 75% of

MSMEs based in ten states. As a result, both the state and the federal governments

must work together. Supply-side measures, such as improving MSMEs' supply

chains, can also aid them in weathering the storm.

Guaranteeing that the MSME area approaches crude materials and strong

downstream stock chains would not just assistance moderate creation deficiencies in

the wellbeing what's more, the fundamental products area, however given its size,

additionally conceivably log jam the unfriendly effect on the Indian economy in

general. The Government of India has effectively engaged MSMEs delivering

clinical and other fundamental items to enrol and sell in the Government's e-

commercial centre. This ought to be extended to different areas too with co-

appointment across various states to fulfill neighbourhood supply and need

prerequisites. While Indian policymakers face the extreme assignment of containing

25
 a general wellbeing pandemic just as defining quick approaches to shield the most

powerless from its unfriendly financial impact, a submitted reaction to help the

MSMEs is fundamental, inescapable and key to facilitating the effect of Being out of

the conventional organization, they don't need to look after accounts, make good on

charges or hold fast to administrative standards and so on This cuts down their

expenses.

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

According to an article by Riddle (2020), crises are highly likely to change consumer
26
behaviour. In the past, consumer behaviour had been drastically altered due to a variety of
reasons. In the United States (9/11) and Israel, terrorist attacks propelled consumers to
purchase online as they considered going out risky changing shopping patterns. Similarly,
after the 2008 crisis, the consumers began to look for more real and authentic experiences
changing the dynamism between producers and consumers. Consumer psychological profiles
evolved over a period of time and it becomes crucial for firms to understand how their
consumers react to this crisis.

Meyer (2020) in her article ‘Understanding the COVID-19 Effect on Online Shopping
Behavior’ explains that consumers are realizing the importance of interconnected worlds.
From bulk buying to online shopping, buying behaviour of consumers have changed. Limited
shopping and buying essentials have become new normal. China’s largest e- retailer JD,
witnessed its sales of household items quadrupling over the same period last year. Nielsen
has identified spurt in proactive health-minded buying and quarantine prep buying. We are
living in a situation of flux. Consumers are trying to adapt to new situations with a lot of
footholds causing shifts in the behaviour.

An extremely enriching article by Curan (2020), talks about the change in consumer
behaviour due to the COVID-19 pandemic vis-à-vis a long term approach. The article starts
from the Great Depression, covers the Asian Financial Crisis & the 2008 financial crisis and
ends with the current pandemic. It explores the uncertainties on the supply side and the fact
that producers all over the globe aren’t certain about where to buy the raw materials from and
how to produce the finished goods. He also states that various universities and educational
institutions are harshly affected and better infrastructures are being prepared to deliver
quality education online.

Shyam (2020) writes for The Economic Times that discretionary spending in India might
take a hit of $45 billion per month due to the pandemic. Discretionary spending includes
expenditure on apparels, recreation and household equipment. That would amount to 1.4%
of the GDP. Most badly hit states by Covid-19 include Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar

27
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu which nearly constitute half of India’s GDP. Any significant impact on
the consumer spending is bound to affect the economy. The GDP might reduce by $1.5
billion every day.

According to Accenture Research Report, consumers are picking up new trends- like
shopping consciously and embracing digital technology. Consumers are changing their
perceptions towards shopping and retail shops are closing. So digital shopping has increased
manifolds and virtual workforce will thereby increase. The research believes that the trends
that consumers have picked over the shutdown period will endure over a time period.
Limiting food waste and shopping with keeping in mind health consciously are the new
trends that have developed. 46% of people who’ve never worked from home are willing to
work from home after the Pandemic. Many employees feel that the employers are correct in
their decision to make work from their homes in lieu of health. This will aid in creation of a
new virtual workforce.

The paper from Science Direct tells about a new trend that the fall in the discretionary time
of homemakers has led to more online shopping. With Pandemic and social distancing put in
place we could see that schooling, working and shopping has been localised. We have seen
consumers hoarding up on essential goods in order to restrict their movements further.
Existing habits are being discarded and new practices are being adopted. Telemedicine and
online educational resources have been developed in order to improvise given the constraints
present. Pent up demand might be a new normal- consumers are postponing certain demands.
It is a consequence of lack of access to the markets for a long time. In home everything has
impacted us in many ways which has been proved empirically. It is expected that some habits
will eventually return back while certain habits might fade away.

Consumers under Pandemic have developed new habits that are more accessible and
convenient like binge-watching on OTT platforms or learning and working from homes.
According to the paper, what previously was a peripheral alternative has become a core
alternative and ones which were core have become peripheral. Businesses have also learnt to
improvise to the new conditions. However, the paper also feels that consumers won’t go back

28
 to their original ways (offline classes) unless the alternative services have made a significant
impact on their lives.

Numerator is keeping a track on changing consumer behaviour. According to its latest

insights, the percentage of consumers who feel that their behaviour has been impacted by
COVID-19 has lowered from 81% in August 2020 to 77% in September 2020. Shopping
behaviour trends towards the gradual return of pre-Covid shopping habits. However, this is
accompanied by a gradual resurgence of COVID-19 cases. However, consumers at the same
time are expecting COVID-19 cases to rise and thus expecting students and other working
professionals to stay at home in anticipation of re-closure of universities and workplaces and
thus consumption levels are expected to rise. Online delivery is expected to attract more
users. Fluctuations are expected in consumer behaviour.

Hashem (2020) found that for most consumers in the world, doing e buying through various
online sites or mobile apps is becoming a cornerstone day by day. In the month of April, the
most interest of buyers in online grocery shopping and other essential things.

Chang, and Meyerhoefer (2020) mentioned in their study that need for cereal, fruits, fresh
vegetables and precooked foods have risen, benefiting small-scale farmers in agronomy.

As per latest Nielsen report, there is a rapidly increase in online demand of India's FMCG
goods that increased nearly 50% year-on-year in the March quarter due to shoppers
increasingly purchased from egrocers.

Hand sanitizer sales reported a speedy growth of 1425 percent via online and 144 percent via
a neighborhood store. The purchase of facemasks, hand sanitizer, face shield mask are more
preferred products during this critical situation.

There is a rapid rise in the Indulgence Food segment with the increase in the sales of cooking
oil, soft drinks, pulses, snacks etc

Demands for laptops in India also increased due to work from home, online classes, teaching
etc. The market for online courses is also on the rise. In its live courses, Topper is seeing a 100
percent rise in attendance.

29
Upgrade enquiries have increased by 50 percent .There is also increase in BYJU user base.
Inquiries into health plans are also growing, which would be good for the health insurance
industry.
In addition to grocery, medical products, baby products, cleaning products, food and beverage,
products required for “Work from home”, health and wellness related products, toys and
games, products for pets, household & electronic products, bags or travel products, auto or
tools, fashion & apparel products, jewellery & luxury products, sports & fitness products and
products related to “Beauty & Care” are products that are also preferred by shoppers.
Expectations of consumers:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, almost retailers have modified their distribution of products
or services, return schemes to provide maximum protection to their shoppers and employees.
These improvements will alter consumer perceptions of online delivery and returns, as
discussed by Global Data, a leading data and analytics firm. As per the Global Data report
which provides businesses in the world's largest industries with unique data, expert insight and
creative solutions. Longer returns period, change in methods of return of products, reasonable
price of products, Contactless delivery are the main expectations of consumers from online
shopping service providers for getting more satisfaction
Strategies / suggestions for e-retailers:
Due to Covid-19 Pandemic the shopping habits of consumers is changing fast. To exist in the
market, businesses should start to sell important things as per latest situation. For example, to
meet the increasing demands of shoppers, some eretailers are going to introduce different types
of sanitizers, facemasks, face shield mask and other goods for safety purpose. Eretailers should
turn to the sale of essential products or services rather than nonessential products. E- retailers
should increase the time for returning goods and focus on contact less delivery.

Debnath, S.(2020) The data reflects after evaluation that the male respondents having monthly
income ranged from 0 to 30,000 with an age group ranging from 25 to 35 highly influences the
consumer purchase behaviour. Therefore, higher income of male respondents and huge price
rise of products are highly correlated with each other towards consumer purchase behaviour.
The overall findings provide implications to marketers, retailers and advertisers to implement
30
future strategies according to the current pandemic situation towards consumer purchase
behaviour in the retail sector.
Ali, B. J (2020) This study examines extant literature and secondary sales data from Samsung,
the largest consumer electronic durable-goods company in Iraq, to show how the pandemic
may have encouraged Iraqi consumers to embrace technology, as hinted by the surge in online
purchases. Some markets have found it difficult to adapt to online shopping, despite the
pandemic negatively affecting brick-and-mortar sales worldwide.
Pathak, G., and Warpade, S. (2020): The present study was carried out in the month of July
2020 means after the announcement of the first phase of unlocking in Maharashtra. Data were
collected from the western part of Maharashtra and the majority of the samples are from Pune
and Satara District. The researcher has used Google form for data collection. After the
analysis, it is found that some consumers have changed their preference while selecting
retailers for shopping of essential goods.
Pham, V. K et al (2020) The Covid-19 pandemic has promoted online shopping activities of
Vietnamese consumers more actively, which previously took a lot of effort of online
businesses, but not effectively. However, will this changing behavior be sustained after the
Covid-19 pandemic? Therefore, the article aims to investigate how customers change during
the Covid-19 outbreak based on perceived risks and perceived benefits of consumers in online
shopping. These two groups of factors will be assessed along with the moderating role of the
Covid-19 impact.
Wijaya, T. (2020) The results showed that the factors that formed panic buying behavior were
an information and knowledge factor, a family considerations, a conditional or influence effect
from other people, and a risk avoidance factor. These results provide the findings of the factors
forming panic buying and the implications of suggestions for the government to educate the
public with various media and prevent misinformation that can cause panic in buying
behaviour.

P Rajeshwari & C Vijay (2020) in their study found that most of the respondents strongly
agree COVID-19 -19 impact on buying behavior (52.4%) and the majority of the respondents
spending the money only essential goods (52.4%) during COVID-19 and changed the brand
Preference the respondents say maybe (44.4) the majority of the respondents purchasing more
fruits and vegetables during COVID-19 -19 (41.6%), COVID-19 changed food behavior
31
(41.9%) and most of the respondents prefer to use online payment for purchasing (39.4%)
COVID-19 reduced the expenditure (40.0%) and saved income (28.9%) finally most of the
respondents strongly agree (41.0%) and agree (25.1%) COVID-19 changed entire life.
Bharti Agarwal & Deepa Kapoor (2020) found that the COVID19 pandemic changed
consumer behavior towards relying more on online shopping. Current research has found that
restricted movement among individuals, Convenience and Time saving and Digital
transformation of local kirana shops are the main drivers of online buying after COVID-19
pandemic. Demand for cereals, fresh fruit, vegetables, frozen food, groceries, soaps, sanitizers,
masks and other fast moving consumer goods increased the most under COVID-19 situation.
Longer returns period, change in methods of return of products, reasonable price of products,
Contactless delivery are the main expectations of consumers from online shopping service
providers for getting more satisfaction.

The pandemic had a huge impact on the economies and thus had significant implications for the
markets. According to a report, edible goods will globally have an increased demand and
inedible goods will have an overall reduced demand during the Pandemic periods. 76% of
Indian consumers believed that they were going to shop more cautiously next time according to
a McKinsey survey. According to a BCG survey, younger and lower income consumers are
more likely to reduce their spendings whereas older and middle-income consumers are likely to
maintain their previous level of incomes. Digitalization of shopping will continue over a period
of time as outdoor shopping stores are visited less due to physical restrictions. Technology
platforms are going to play a larger role in advertisements as well. Shifting of consumer
priorities has been witnessed in these times. Spiritual approach of consumerism is a new
normal and firms need to understand their customers well in order to devise their approaches.
Companies are looking towards mutual collaboration as well.

CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

32
3.1 Objectives
To study the effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on consumer behaviour patterns, focusing
on internet-based services in 4 sectors, namely -

A) Educational courses/classes
B) Daily essential shopping (Groceries)
C) Entertainment (Cinema v/s OTTs)
D) Workplace meetings
E) To study the main factors behind the change in the buying pattern.

3.2 Hypothesis

Null hypothesis (H0): There will be no significant difference in the usage of online services
before and after the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Alternate hypothesis (H1): There will be a significant increase in the usage of online services
after the COVID-19 Pandemic, compared to pre-Pandemic.

3.3 Methodology Participants

100 participants responded to the online questionnaire. Out of these, 52% of the participants
were female while the rest 48% were males. The majority of the participants (65%) were
aged 10 to 25.

3.4 Assessments and Measures

Online questionnaire: The questionnaire contained 18 carefully curated close-ended
questions to get the data with minimum error. The first two questions were to check the
demographics of the participants - gender and age. The rest 16 questions were related to the
research problem. They were broken down into 4 sections with 4 questions each.

3.5 Procedure
All the 100 participants were contacted online through social media to fill the questionnaire.
The survey was conducted on the Google Forms platform. The survey was based on
convenience sampling - all participants were acquainted with the researchers. It was due to

33
convenience sampling, that most participants were from Lucknow and came from a
middle/upper economic background.

3.6 Research Design

The primary focus of this research was to find out whether the COVID-19 Pandemic in India
(from mid-march 2020) will have an impact on the consumers behaviour and if so, due to
what reasons. For this, an anonymous online survey was conducted. This study is descriptive
in nature. It has taken the help of primary and secondary data.

● Primary data: This research has used an online questionnaire to collect primary data.

● Secondary data: This research has used various published research papers, articles
and videos to get secondary data.

● Independent variable: The ratings for the usage of online services of various sectors
before the Pandemic. Since the Pandemic did not affect the way people felt about the
usage of these services, they are classified as independent variables.

● Dependent variable: The ratings for the usage of online services of various sectors
after the Pandemic. These ratings depend on pre-Pandemic ratings as well as the need
for it during the Pandemic and are hence classified as dependent variables.

Apart from this, the main reason people preferred online or offline services was also noted.

3.7 Tools used for Analysis

The paper uses three tools for the analysis of the quantitative data namely paired sample z-
test for comparing two means, triple bar graph, contingency table and pie chart.

A paired sample z-test is a statistical test used to determine whether two population means
are different when the variances are known and the sample size is large. This tool has been
used here with a 95% confidence interval to determine if Pandemic has brought a significant
change in consumer behaviour while using online services.

A triple bar graph represents categorical data with rectangular bars with heights or
lengths proportional to the values that they represent and are used to compare things. Triple

34
bar graphs are a way of showing information about different sub-groups of the main
categories. Bar graph has been used in this research to present how the respondents made
different choices.

A Pie Chart is a pictorial representation of data that uses pie slices to show relative sizes of
data. It is used to compare parts of a whole. In this research, pie charts have been used to
represent the factors behind respondents making a particular choice.

A Contingency Table is a type of table in matrix form that displays multivariate frequency
distribution of variables. In this research, multivariate contingency tables have been used to
represent age and factor wise preferences for particular services.

CHAPTER 4
DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

35
The responses had a diverse range of intensity for preferences of services in the four sectors
as well as their reason. The triple bar graph in Figure 1 shows the breakdown of the 100
samples into the categories of preferring more online services, having no change or if the
particular sector isn’t applicable to them.

Figure 1: Preference of the sample post Pandemic with respect to Educational courses,
Groceries, Cinema and Work Meeting.

Source: Authors’ construction based on survey data

4.1 Paired Sample Z-testing

Ratings before Pandemic are depicted by the variable: x Ratings

36
after Pandemic are depicted by the variable: y Hypothesis:
Null hypothesis (H0) : 𝜇y = 𝜇x

Alternate hypothesis (H1) : 𝜇y > 𝜇x

For a 95% confidence interval, 𝛼 = 0.05

The z-score for an upper-Tailed Test when 𝛼 is equal to 0.05 = 1.645

Figure 2: Right tailed z-test (𝛼 = 0.05)

Source: Boston University

Rejection Region for
upper-tailed Z test (H1 : 𝜇y > 𝜇x) with 𝛼 = 0.05 The decision rule is : Reject
H0 if Z ≥ 1.645.

Table 1: Educational Classes/Courses

37
 Mean (𝜇) Standard Deviation (𝜎)

Before Pandemic (x) 2.4014 0.9532

After Pandemic (y) 3.0211 1.2630

Total number of observations (N) = 100

Now,
●
𝜇y-x = 𝜇y-𝜇x

= 0.6197
●
𝜎(x,y) = √ (𝜎x)2/N + √ (𝜎y)2/N

= 0.3239
●
Z value = 𝜇y-x/𝜎(x,y)
= 1.9132

Since Z=1.9132, therefore Z ≥ 1.645. By the

decision rule, H0 is rejected.
The p-value corresponding to the z score of 1.9132 is 2.81%. In other words, this would mean that the
null hypothesis is wrong 97.19% of the time.

I. Daily Essentials (Groceries) Table 2

38
 Mean (𝜇) Standard Deviation (𝜎)

Before Pandemic (x) 2.2298 1.1081

After Pandemic (y) 2.9689 1.2865

Total number of observations (N) =100

Now,
●
𝜇y-x = 𝜇y-𝜇x

= 0.7391

●
𝜎(x,y) = √ (𝜎x)2/N + √ (𝜎y)2/N

= 0.2926

●
Z value = 𝜇y-x/𝜎(x,y)

= 2.5259

Since Z=2.5259, therefore Z ≥ 1.645. By the

decision rule, H0 is rejected.
The p-value corresponding to the z score of 2.5259 is 0.52%. In other words, this would mean that the
null hypothesis is wrong 99.48% of the time.

39
I. Entertainment (Cinemas and OTT platforms) Table3

Mean (𝜇) Standard Deviation (𝜎)

Before Pandemic (x) 3.3576 1.2044

After Pandemic (y) 3.8606 1.0586

Total number of observations (N) = 100

Now,
●
𝜇y-x = 𝜇y-𝜇x
= 0.5030
●
𝜎(x,y) = √ (𝜎x)2/N + √ (𝜎y)2/N

= 0.3983
●
Z value = 𝜇y-x/𝜎(x,y)

= 1.2628
Since Z = 1.2628, therefore Z < 1.645.

By the decision rule, H0 was failed to be rejected.

40
The p-value corresponding to the z score of 1.2628 is 10.32%. In other words, this would
mean that the null hypothesis is wrong 89.62% of the time. This isn’t a confidence interval
strong enough to reject H0. Hence H0 was failed to be rejected.

II. Workplace Meetings (Non-essential)

Table4

Mean (𝜇) Standard Deviation (𝜎)

Before Pandemic (x) 2.8 0.9211

After Pandemic (y) 3.384 1.1127

Total number of observations (N) = 100 Now,

●
𝜇y-x = 𝜇y-𝜇x

= 1.104
●
𝜎(x,y) = √ (𝜎x)2/N + √ (𝜎y)2/N
= 0.3649
●
Z value = 𝜇y-x/𝜎(x,y)

= 3.0255
Since Z=3.0255, therefore Z ≥ 1.645. By the
decision rule, H0 is rejected.

41
The p-value corresponding to the z score of 3.0255 is 0.13%. In other words, this would mean
that the null hypothesis is wrong 99.87% of the time.

4.2 Immediate impact on Consumer Behavior

As stated earlier, every consumer behavior and consumption is affixed to location and time.
Ever since World War II, there has been reduction in discretionary time as more and more
women started working. Today 75% of women with children are working full time at home, as
per the latest calculations. Therefore this led to shortage of time and shifting of time in both
personal and family consumption. From Monday to Friday between the times 8am to 5 pm no
one is found at home for the service technicians to install and maintain appliances also to
repair damaged cooling and heating systems. Therefore appointments are made by the supplier
with the family prior to make sure that someone will be at home to open the gate Since the
homemaker is now not that much free because of her job, therefore there is shortage of
discretionary time. As a consequence this has led to increase in the rates of shopping online
and products being directly delivered at their homes. Also , nowadays vacations are planned
according to festivals or national holidays like Easter , Diwali , Holi , Thanksgiving, Memorial
and weekends as there is shortage of time , there are no longer vacations planned for two to
three weeks at a time altogether .

Customer’s choice of place to shop has been restricted because of lockdown and social and
distancing. As a consequence this led to shortage of location and location constraint. Mobility
shortage and mobility shift is also there. These days at home all the activities related to
shopping, schooling and working are happening and people are accustomed to it now. There is
more flexibility of time as customers do not follow planned schedules like going to school or
work or to consume or to shop . Unavailability of space at homes leads to conflicts and
dilemmas regarding who at home do what in what location. As we human beings are in
general more territorial and everyone is in need of his or her private space, therefore in
consumption we all are we are dealing with our lack of privacy and convenience. Eight
immediate effects of Covid-19 pandemic on consumption and consumer behavior have been
summarized in the figure below.

42
 Figure 2: Immediate Impact of Covid-19 on Consumption Behavior

1. Hoarding

Essential products for daily consumption are being stocked by customers leading to
shortage and stock outs temporarily. Basic products include - water, meat, bread, products
for disinfection and cleaning. The common reaction to manage the uncertainty of the
future supply of products for basic needs is hoarding. When a nation goes through hyper –
inflation like that is happening in Venezuela at that hoarding is a common practice. Gray
market also emerges in addition to hoarding where prices are increased and products are
hoard by unauthorized middlemen. Recently this happened with regards to PRODUCTS
OF PPE (personal protection equipment) AND N95 masks for healthcare professionals
and workers. Also marketing of counterfeit products is encouraged by hoarding. IN

43
 Consumer behavior not much empirical research has been done on the psychology and
economy of hoarding.

2. Improvisation

Whenever there are constraints, consumers also learn to improvise. New ways of
consumption are invented and habits already existing are discarded in the process. Because
of corona there has been restrictions implemented weddings and other functions are no
more grand , just a small gathering this leading to no pomp and show even in funerals only
a small number is permitted . THE traditional activities have been substituted with
Sidewalk weddings and Zoom funeral services. Church services especially on Easter
Sunday this has been implemented. Another area for future research is “Improvisation to
manage shortage of products or services”. As a result alternative options and innovative
practices that are location centric consumption are invented and established like online
education and telehealth. Hence on improvisation once again there is no systematic
scientific or empirical research. “Jugaad in India is the closest research arena on
improvisation. Jugaad means advancing solutions that perform by over-coming restrictions
that are enforced by government policies or by social norms. Radjou, Prabhu and Ahujo,
in 2012 stated that Jugaad also means to do more with less, to seek opportunity even in
adversity and thinking and acting in a flexible way and following the heart.

3. Pent-up Demand

At the times of uncertainty and crisis the common tendency is to delay purchase and
consumption of discretionary services and products. Quite often, this is linked with large
ticket goods that are durable like homes, appliances and automobiles. Discretionary
services LIKE restaurants, bars, sports, concerts are also included. AS A consequence
there is shifting of demand to future from the present. When access to market is denied for
services like movies, and entertainment, parks and recreation a short INTERVAL of time
pent up demand Is established. Impact of pent up demand on the GDP growth HAS been
studied by economists, on consumer behavior and on the nature and scope of pent up
demand little research has been done.

44
4. Store Comes Home

Consumers were not able to visit grocery stores and to shopping stores when there was
complete lockdown in nations like Italy , South Korea , China , India and other countries .
As an alternative to it stores came at home. Flow of education, health, purchasing and
consumption is all reversed. Streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney
are also included along with the home delivery services and apps thus these are breaking
the traditional norms of physically visiting to brick and mortar places. Convenience and
personalization in consumer behavior is also enhanced. “In-home everything” how affects
customer’s impulse buying and planned vs. unplanned consumption needs empirical
research.

5. Embracing Digital Technology

Out of sheer need, customers have adapted a few new advancements in technology and
their applications. For instance services of Zoom video. Just to stay aware of loved ones,
most of the families who have the web services have figured out how to join in Zoom
gatherings. Obviously, it has been reached out to far off classes at home for schools and
universities and to telehealth for virtual encounters with the physician and other medical
care suppliers. Most buyers prefer online media like the Whatsapp, Facebook, , We Chat,
YouTube ,LinkedIn, and others. The web is both a rich- medium and has worldwide reach.

China and India are no longer the biggest countries in populace. They are Whatsapp
Facebook, and YouTube. Everyone has in excess of a billion users and subscribers. This
has drastically transformed the nature and extent of verbal advices and proposals just as
sharing data. One of the quickest developing territories is influencer advertisers. A
considerable lot of them have a large number of followers in millions. Effect of advanced
innovation as a rule and web-based media specifically on consumer behavior is huge in
scale and inescapable in shopper's day by day life. It will be fascinating to check whether
innovation reception will bring an end to the old propensities. While we have read
dispersion of advancement for phones, TV, and the web, we have not encountered a
worldwide adoption of social media in profoundly compacted cycle.
45
Once everything will go back to normal most of the habits is expected to resume back.
Still, it is expected that few of the habits will eventually perish because the customer
beneath the conditions of lockdown has explored alternatives that are accessible,
convenient and affordable. For example watching movies on online streaming services like
Disney and Netflix instead of going to movie theaters. Which is likewise similar to book
shared car services like that of Ola and Uber these are affordable and convenient as
compared to calling a taxi physically? Consumers find it easy to work from home, shop at
home and learn at home.

THEREFORE, to the already persisting habits these have become peripheral alternatives
to the core. For consumer behavior there is a universal law. As A recreation or a hobby
THE old habit or necessity given up comes back. For Instance, baking bread, and cooking,
hunting, fishing, and gardening. So, it will be interesting to observe if the old existing
habits which have been replaced by the new habits will they ever come back as hobbies or
recreation. In other terms, will shopping become a hobby or recreation or another outdoor
activity?

 Modified Habits: New guideline and regulations have altered the existing habits of
shopping grocery and delivery with such as wearing masks and maintaining social
distancing. Customers are now wearing masks before stepping out of the house for using
public transport or to go shopping. Beauty parlors, physical therapies, and fitness places in
these services industries these regulations have been made mandatory. Concerts and social
events, just to name a few, And, parks and recreation centers here also wearing masks has
been made mandatory.

 New Habits: New habits can be generated by three factors , Public policy is the first one
, for instance as we have security check points at airports , there are more strict boarding
and screening processes that includes calculating the temperature as well in order to check
if the person is suffering from the virus before travelling . New measures have been put by
all major airlines before and after boarding the flight also for meal services for the
passengers. IN Order to shape future consumptions the government policies need to
encourage or discourage consumption.

A good understanding of lives of consumer is important to make sure that the proper
services and products are being sold in the most efficient way to the right people in the

46
best possible way as stated by Kotler and Keller, 2012. During the phases of lockdown
with only digital media to connect and no mobility, writers did deep discussions with
professionals from marketing domain led to comprehension and the unexpectedness and
lockdown globally transformed the dynamics of behaviour of customers and individual
orientation and social spheres has been redefined. New order of demand and supply
coupled with uncertainty forcing consumption rolled back to Maslow’s primary level
wants such as ‘shelter’, safe indoors, social love and belongingness , ‘food’, ‘clothes’,
‘shelter’ has been opinioned with marketing professionals and expressed their views .
Everyone is learning to survive with just the essential requirements since the socio-
economic pyramid has crumpled and flattened. At individual as well as at national level, a
very significant role WAS played by ‘health as wealth’ even during the Vedic era.

As Vedas as rightly mentioned about Behavioural driver ‘health and healthy choices’.
During those times, food, well-being and health were the primary requirements for the
happiness and satisfaction of family and society. As stated by Dwivedi, 2016 that In
Accordance to social conditions, ethical values, health and spiritual views these economic
policies were framed and adjusted. During this pandemic there has been a shift towards
spiritual consumption. With respect to shortage of regular income, loss of work, the age-
old principle of spending within limits was reminded again. Sayings and proverbs like jitni
chaadar ho often paanv pasaro (live within your means or capacity) has been revived again
during this pandemic and is expected that this will be sustain and will be next practice. As
heroes of consumption, palatial infrastructure of corporate offices, universities, schools
shrunk to 8-inch screens and the importance of farming, supply chain and effective
governance has BEEN re-structured. New models on marketing have started emerging as
mentioned by marketing professionals, for instance companies have now switched to
deliver essentials such as fruits, vegetables and groceries directly at home, along with
online ready-toeat food-delivery. In order to develop innovation companies are
collaborating together in multiple ways. IN a COVID- 19 R&D forum more than 15
pharmaceuticals companies are collaborating together to advance both at the individual
and collective level, for developing COVID-19 vaccine decades-long competitors Sanofi
and GSK are partnering together. In order to recover economically in the most efficient
way while keeping in consideration the health of public, making decisions regarding
which measures need to be implemented when and where, and also there has been
transitions from localized models to globalization models with a boost to local retailers
47
 and new means of communication like messaging apps on mobile to local stores.

CHAPTER 5
FINDINGS & CONCLUSION

5.1 FINDINGS

I. Educational Classes/ Courses

For the sector of online courses or classes through mediums like Coursera, edX etc., the
paper derived that there would be a significant amount of shift. In other words, some amount
of the consumer base would shift from taking offline lectures to online once. This, of course,
would only apply to substitutable courses. What this means to the producers is to keep an eye
out and start innovating their services into an easy, user-friendly online world. Data from
Figure 3 (Appendix 2) shows that an overwhelming majority (71%) of respondents who
preferred taking online courses/classes because it gives them the leniency to work at their
own pace and some (13%) of the respondents consider the reduced time and efforts in
travelling as a factor propelling them for preferring these classes. Having these positive
factors of online classes in mind, the service providers (teachers, educational institutions etc.)
should check the feasibility of adding an online option if adequate resources are available for
the same. The producers who already have online portals might consider investing in its
enhancement since the demand for the same is going to rise.

However, for the smaller service providers such as individual tutors, who can’t afford to set
up online services, they might consider building upon the main reasons people prefer an in-
classroom course. These reasons consist of a large number of people feeling that the
classroom environment is much essential while they study (41%). Second to that is the
student-teacher interaction (22%) in real life - which seems favourable to them than the
interaction through a virtual medium (Figure 4, Appendix 2). Encouraging discussions with
classmates and the teacher would be an important factor that would draw students towards an
in-classroom course.

48
 II. Daily Essentials (Groceries)

The sector for essential FMCG goods and groceries which include milk, bread, ketchup,
biscuits, and vegetables will see a significant shift to the online world with applications such
as Big Basket, Amazon Pantry etc. taking over a part of the consumer base of local mom and
pop stores as well as the supermarkets. From Figure 5 (Appendix 2), an overwhelming
majority (77%) of who opted for online groceries because the convenience in terms of time
and transportation was worth it. All the respondents being from a metropolitan city in India
have a fast paced life. Every fortnight or once a month, going for grocery shopping could
take a substantial amount of time out of their weekends. Ordering online hardly takes 10
minutes, and no effort. Others felt that they got a plethora of options (11%) while choosing
groceries and another set of respondents felt they got better discounts while purchasing
groceries (6%). This is because the consumers have the search tool at their disposal, and
within a matter of a few clicks, they could find the required item. Since companies like Big
Basket and Grofers cut out the middle-men, they have the ability to give the end-consumers
discounts as well. An important fact to be noted is that none of respondents preferred the
quality of products online as a reason to get these goods, which might be a trust issue for
companies to look into.

For the smaller local kirana stores who do not have the required resources to provide these
kinds of services, they can look into strengthening the tools at their disposal. Taking orders
on call would be a close substitute to online ordering. The best tool these businessmen have
is the trust and relationship they build with their customers, which isn’t being done by the
large companies. From the data in Figure 6 (Appendix 2), 28% of the respondents said the
reason they won’t change their grocery buying habits is basically attributed to the trust they
have in the quality of products they buy. Another section of respondents preferred their
previous buying ways because they had more information at their disposals (27%).
Additionally, 17% of respondents said they might get groceries delivered timely - urgency or
a delay in supply chains of e-groceries. Local businesses like mom and pop stores could take
advantage of these trust factors in the consumers’ minds.

49
 I. Entertainment (Cinemas and OTT platforms)
Unlike the other three sectors in the paper, the z-test rejects to fail the null hypothesis for this
particular sector. In other words, the Pandemic forcing people to consumer movies on OTT
platforms wouldn’t make a significant difference in the sales of cinema tickets. 54% of the
respondents suggested that they will not change movie preferences of experience because set
up of cinema halls - big screen, a great sound system and a luxurious seating along with the
eateries around, makes movie halls so popular among the consumers.

These are factors totally unsubstitutable by online digital streaming platforms which can't be
done from home. Though a lot more expensive than digital streaming, this could be
considered as a leisure outing that people tend to take on weekends, holidays or special
occasions.

Past few years have seen a rise in OTT platforms with multi-billion-dollar companies like
Amazon and Disney releasing Amazon prime and Disney plus. This is a clear indicator that
there is a market big enough to be captured by streaming services. According to Figure 7
(Appendix 2), most respondents (30%) prefer watching movies on digital streaming
platforms because they can set the pace of movies they watch and can watch it whenever
convenient - according to their schedules. Another set of respondents (29%) would do so
because they want to travel less and streaming is a handy option. About 21% said that these
services were more pocket friendly. This would be because they get access to a lot of content
for a monthly subscription than they would spend on going to a theatre. Some respondents
also felt that they would go for digital streaming because they will be prone to less
distractions while watching movies from the comfort of their homes.

50
II. Workplace Meetings (Non-essential)
Through this research and primary data analysis, we understand that people are able to cope
up with most of the professional work and discussion among employees and colleagues
through online meetings on websites like Zoom, EZ Talks and so on. The rejection of the null
hypothesis in the video conferencing for the commercial sector with a confidence interval of
99.87% shows that there would be a large shift in the way consumers would define meetings.
Virtual meetings are actually allowing people to express ideas, information and discuss their
work while saving money and time, thus making it more convenient to employees. Data from
Figure 8 (Appendix 2) states that an overwhelming majority (48%) of who preferred taking
virtual meetings because it allows people to be in multiple locations yet stay connected, thus
avoiding difficulty associated with travelling to places. Virtual work meetings are also cost-
effective thus enabling small sized and medium sized firms to take up regular meetings
online especially in situations where all the employees might not be at the same location.
Whereas about (29%) of the respondents find Virtual meetings convenient because of the
ease to perform presentations to their colleagues through webcast, screen sharing. As most of
the people were forced to use these online platforms, they've realized that online sources are
relatively convenient and easy to access from most laptops, desktops and other smart devices.

Among those who prefer not to change their preference, a majority (62%) of the respondents
feel that the interaction among the employees and colleagues would be better face to face,
with physical presence. Second to this comes the ease of presenting on whiteboards with
projectors in real life that about (27%) of the respondents feel.

An important trend to be noticed here is that the popularity of online mediums (classrooms,
meeting places, e-commerce, OTT platforms) has soared after Pandemic than it was before
Pandemic primarily because of the convenience these platforms provide. If we gauge that
preferences for online mediums without taking into account the other preferences, we notice
that acceptability of online mediums is much higher now (after the Pandemic) than it was
before Pandemic [with the exception of OTT platforms, they had been quite popular before
as well].

51
 We can say that Pandemic has been a catalyst in increasing the popularity of online
mediums. The 3rd and 4th question in each sector of our primary survey was to gauge the
preferences for online medium before and after Pandemic. These two interlinked questions
are however different from the 1st question in each sector.

The first question aims at measuring which preferences will emerge more popular after the
Pandemic. Here, we find that the majority of consumers will be retaining their older
preferences (the mixed amount of online and offline mediums) in all the sectors except for
the online meeting places. We also find that the change in averages of preference for online
workplaces before and Pandemic is the highest amongst all. The large change is showing that
consumers are adapting to online workplaces and they are finding it better than the traditional
workplaces. Thus, we can safely conclude that while online services are getting hugely
popular these days than what they were before. However, these changes are not large enough
to totally disrupt the markets of these services. Consumers are more likely to retain their
earlier preferences rather than shifting to new mediums. Consumers might find convenience
in the virtual platforms but they are still willing to use those platforms where they can get a
sense of reality. Online platforms will surely be capturing some share of these services in the
whole market but they won’t be able to capture a larger share at least till some time. We
know that as the social restrictions reduce, consumers are more likely to go outside to attend
classes, watch movies in cinema halls and shop from outside than during the Pandemic
period. Many other factors will be at play in the market of these services but for the provider
of online services, they need to bring out significant impact in the lives of consumers if they
need to capture the markets.

52
5.2 Conclusion
As witnessed, the COVID-19 Pandemic has a significant impact on the global economy. In
the course of the research, notable shifts in consumer behavior in the market of online
services were found. Through the study, a conclusion can be safely made - there has been a
spurt in demand for online services and consumers are likely to prefer online services more
now than they used to do it before. The findings also show that traditional market spaces of
services like education, essentials (groceries) and work meeting spaces could be facing
massive disruption because of the rapid emergence of their online counterparts, whereas the
cinematic experience would keep the theatres in business. However, consumers in three
sectors- education, essentials (groceries) and cinema will prefer their older ways- the mix of
online and offline services they used before the Pandemic. Thus, it might be long before
online services entirely replace the traditional ones.

53
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 Appendix

Conditions Average points on

the Likert-scale

Before Pandemic - online classes preference 2.425925926

After Pandemic - online classes preference 3.073170732

Before Pandemic - ordering groceries online 2.245614035

preference

After Pandemic - ordering groceries online 2.918128655

preference

Before Pandemic - online movie streaming 3.335294118

preference

After Pandemic - online movie streaming 3.823529412

preference

Before Pandemic - video calls for meetings 2.319444444

preference

57
After Pandemic - video call meetings preference 3.352112676

Characteristics of services that determine a consumer’s preference

Figure 3: Factors behind online courses/classes being taken increasingly after Pandemic

Source: Authors’ construction based on survey data

Figure 4: Factors behind no change in preference after the Pandemic (same amount of
online/offline classes as before)

58
 Source: Authors’ construction based on survey data

Figure 5: Factors behind online ordering of groceries increasing after Pandemic.

Source: Authors’ construction based on survey data

Figure 6: Factors behind no change in preference after the Pandemic (same amount of
online/offline as before)

Source: Authors’ construction based on survey data

59
Figure 7: Factors behind usage of OTT platforms increasing after Pandemic

Source: Authors’ construction based on survey data

Figure 8: Factors behind no change in preference after the Pandemic (same amount of
movies/digital streaming as before)

Source: Authors’ construction based on survey data

60
Figure 9: Factors behind usage of online video calling platforms increasing after Pandemic

Source: Authors’ construction based on survey data

Figure 10: Factors for no change in preference after the Pandemic (same amount of
online/offline as before)

61
Source: Authors’ construction based on survey data

62