Coronavirus is also known as the covid-19 pandemic, started in China and soon spread throughout the world. The outbreak of the pandemic of Covid-19 has changed the lives of all individuals across the globe. This was a very unexpected and life-changing incident for everyone and disrupted the flow of everything all over the world.
From the way people socialize to their shopping habits, everything has altered a lot. After this epidemic, consumer behaviour has exponentially changed. They expect a lot different now and still strive to move towards a post-pandemic lifestyle.
Most Of The Consumers Were Affected Due To The Pandemic
A lot of consumers have claimed that their shopping pattern has changed during covid times. During March, every one out of four customers said that their shopping pattern was affected. Then the number rose to one out of three consumers. They claimed that covid tremendously affected their lifestyle. By the end of covid-19, almost everyone that is hundred per cent of the population claims that their life was affected and the shopping behaviour due to corona outbreak.
This is also because, during the lockdown, most of the shops were closed. This forced consumers to resist buying stuff. Even after the shops opened, then also consumers were not willing to go to the market due to the risk of covid symptoms. This adversely affected the retailers also as they were not able to sell products. Most of the retailers had to incur a huge amount of losses during this pandemic.
Shift Of Consumer Behavior During The Epidemic
During the beginning of the pandemic, most of the consumers faced a shortage of products. The risk of corona terrorized the masses, and thus, people started to stock up basic food items at their homes. This resulted in a shortage of these products in the market. But as the supply chains improved, they were trying to catch up with the changing trends. This resulted in significant improvement in the conditions in the market. Even though the conditions improved, still there was a lot of product shortage in the market due to people piling up things at their homes.
Stores closed during March and April, which led to significant consumer behaviours changes as they were switching to new shops or holding off their urge to buy non-essential goods. The major consumer behaviour that had almost no change was switching from offline to online stores. There have been lots of ongoing efforts to establish new normal standard norms.
The Online Shift Of Consumers During Pandemic
From March 2020 to December 2020, almost 87 per cent of people shopped online or placed an order to the offline stores through online modes only. Between March and June, every one of the three shoppers ordered online or in-store pickup. These were the first time online shoppers. From July, the number rose significantly, and the pandemic witnessed for the first time that there were more online shoppers than traditional store shoppers.
Behaviours That Will Also Stick Post Pandemic
Due to covid, most consumers are cooking, baking, or consuming homemade food instead of ordering out. Initially, they were forced to do it, but now most consumers claim that they will continue this even after this pandemic threat is over. Most people now consume less outside food and drinks and go to bars and restaurants less, and almost 43% of people usually go for taking outs or order in. There are two types of people that emerged post-pandemic. One will make plans to go to the bars and restaurants more often to compensate for the lost time. In comparison, the orders prefer to use these services less and continue with a healthy lifestyle initially forced but has now become a habit.
When it comes to shopping, most people opt for online shopping and claim that they will continue with this habit. In contrast, others can't wait to enjoy traditional offline shopping and fulfil their cravings to shop.
Looking Ahead
As the vaccines are ramping up, and most countries are striving to reach certain milestones, we expect to see a change in consumer behaviours. The market is very dynamic, and a small spike in corona cases in a certain area leads to curfews or lockdown in that area. Thus retailers, as well as consumers, are highly affected by all these things. Most consumers are now scared to go back to normalcy until everyone is vaccinated, which may take lots of time. We can only hope that we could now soon go back to our pre covid lives or expect smooth post covid lives and adapt to the new norms that will be established!
