BM634 - Consumer Buying Habits: The Impact of COVID-19 in Retail

This research report investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer buying habits, specifically within the retail context and focusing on Walmart. The study aims to understand consumer buying behavior, determine factors affecting it during the pandemic, and examine strategic ways to mitigate risks for retail companies. The research employs both primary (questionnaires and surveys) and secondary data collection methods. Key findings include shifts in consumer preferences towards hygienic and healthy products, increased reliance on online shopping, and the need for retailers to adapt to changing consumer behaviors. The report also explores mitigation strategies for retailers like Walmart to reduce the negative impacts of the pandemic and improve their growth and success in the retail market. Desklib provides access to this report and many other solved assignments for students.

THE EFFECT OF COVID19 ON CONSUMER
BUYING HABITS IN THE CONTEXT OF
RETAILING
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ABSTRACT
The main idea for conducting this present research is to identify the impact of COVID-19
pandemic on the buying behaviour of the consumers. There are several objectives that the
researcher has taken into consideration such as to understand the basic concept of consumer
buying behaviour, to determine the factors effecting the consumer buying behaviour in the time
of pandemic and to examine the strategic ways for reducing the risk of pandemic so that better
growth and success can be gained for the company in the retail market. The researcher collects
information by using both the methods that are primary and secondary in an effective manner.
Questionnaire and survey method is used for gathering and interpreting data in an accurate and
correct way by the researcher.
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Contents
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Overview of the topic..................................................................................................................4
Background of the organisation...................................................................................................4
Problem statement.......................................................................................................................4
Research questions.......................................................................................................................4
Research aim and objectives........................................................................................................4
Rationale of the research.............................................................................................................5
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................6
What is the concept of customer buying behaviour?...................................................................6
What is the effects of Covid 19 pandemic on customer buying habits within Walmart?...........8
What is the ways of mitigations to reduce the impact of Covid 19 pandemic in Walmart?......10
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..................................................................................................12
RESULTS......................................................................................................................................16
Frequency Distribution Table....................................................................................................16
DISCUSSION................................................................................................................................26
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................32
REFLECTION...............................................................................................................................34
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................37
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................40
Questionnaire.............................................................................................................................40
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INTRODUCTION
Overview of the topic
Customer buying behaviour is the decision taken by customers for purchasing product or service
from a particular brand (Kumar and et. al., 2020). There are five types of buying behaviour of
customers such as extended decision making, limited decision making, habitual buying
behaviour and variety-seeking buying behaviour. These are main types that have an impact on
customers while buying a product or service from their preferable brand (Varma, Sangvikar and
Pawar, 2020). Along with this, Covid 19 is a pandemic situation that negatively impacted over
the businesses, individual and many others. Covid 19 has also effected on customer buying
habits by reducing their interest towards offline shopping (Naeem, 2020).
Background of the organisation
Walmart is an American multinational retailer that was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton.
Company is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas and U.S. Company wants to improve buying
habits of customers, and it is only possible by using digital media marketing (Rabbani, Heidari
and Farrokhi-Asl, 2018). For this, company should use various platforms of digital media such as
Facebook, Instagram and many others. These are main platforms that turn to helps them in
improving buying habits of customers. This will also have impacted on the growth and success
of Walmart (Prastiwi and Iswari, 2019).
Problem statement
Covid 19 is a biggest problem faced by Walmart. In this situation, company has decreased
number of customers, reduced their sales and profitability and reduced brand image (Shokouhyar
and et. al., 2021). This is a major problem faced by Walmart. For reducing this problem, current
research is conducted in an appropriate manner.
Research questions
 What is the concept of customer buying behaviour?
 What is the effects of Covid 19 pandemic on customer buying habits within Walmart?
 What is the ways of mitigations to reduce the impact of Covid 19 pandemic in Walmart?
Research aim and objectives
Research aim:
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The aim of this research is “To determine the effects of Covid 19 on consumer buying habits”. A
study on Walmart.
Research Objectives:
 To determine the concept of customer buying behaviour.
 To identify the effects of Covid 19 pandemic on customer buying habits within Walmart.
 To analyse the ways of mitigations to reduce the impact of Covid 19 pandemic in
Walmart.
Rationale of the research
The rationale behind selecting this topic is to help Walmart by overcoming the effects of
Covid 19 pandemic on customer buying habits (Tyagi, 2018). This research is important for
various stakeholders such as customers, Walmart, students and researcher. For students, current
research assists them by increasing their understanding regarding the effects of Covid 19 on
consumer buying habits (Veeragandham and et. al., 2020). For the researcher, current study helps
them by improving their research skills such as time management, decision making, data
collection and many others. These are main skills that helps them in improvement of its personal
and professional level. For Walmart, present investigation facilitates them by providing accurate
information regarding the ways of mitigations to reduce the impact of Covid 19 pandemic (Yuan,
and et. al., 2019). For customers, this research facilitates them by providing accurate information
regarding the products and services offered by the Walmart. Therefore, above mentioned all
these are main stakeholders that would be benefited from the current research.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
What is the concept of customer buying behaviour?
As per the opinion of Stankevich (2017), customer buying behaviour is a process of taking
action before buying the products and services. It generally depicts about the way through which
customers make decisions for purchasing the goods and services. Customers are the king of
market and they are the only reason due to which business exists so it is important for an
organisation to focus on understanding the buying pattern of customers. The success of company
depends on the reaction of target customers which they show in the form of buying patterns.
There are few characteristics of consumer buying behaviour such as bargaining, quality vs price,
brand, changing consumption pattern, role of women, credit and complaining.
Bargaining is one of the trends which is found within the behaviour of customers. They
prefer to buy the products by bargaining on the price which is told by the company. The buyers
generally like to buy the products by reducing its price. In few markets, this trend is still vogue
due to which consumers prefer to purchase the product by doing bargaining. The other
characteristic of consumer buying behaviour is quality vs price. Customers generally focus on
price of the products rather than focusing on variety of goods. But nowadays, consumers focus
on purchasing the products which are of good quality rather than considering the price factor.
Brand is also a factor which influences the behaviour of buyers. People prefer products which are
branded and of high quality materials that satisfies their satisfaction level. Brand plays an
important role in making decisions related to purchase of products and services. The changing
consumption pattern is another factor which influences the buying decision of customers. Pattern
of consumption gets changed as people are relying on better standard of living due to which they
purchase goods in order to change their living standard. For making decisions related to
purchase, the role of women is increasing. They are the one who makes purchase decision related
to the products and services. The women make all the decision related to purchase of
commodities whereas men earn the bread. In market, credit and guarantee facility is available
due to which the motive of purchasing is increasingly rapidly. These facilities help in developing
trade and commerce. The other characteristic of consumer buying behaviour is complaining. The
consumers are aware of their rights due to which they make complaints regarding the products
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and services. They can make complaints before consumer forums and also can receive the
compensation against the loss or damage.
It is important for an organisation to focus on understanding the consumer buying
behaviour as it helps in achieving marketing goals and attracting more and more customers
towards the brand. In the competitive market, it is necessary to identify the needs and preference
of consumers and produce the products accordingly in order to make them satisfied with the
brand and its products (Amron, 2018). There is various importance which company can gain
through understanding buyer behaviour are customer needs satisfaction, marketing mix
development, new market opportunities, target market selection and use of efficient resources. It
is essential for an organisation to offer marketing mix in order to satisfy the needs of marketing.
The customers generally look for the satisfaction from the products and services due to which
they buy the products in exchange of money. Thus, it is the responsibility of company to make
their customers feel satisfied with the products and services in order to increase the profitability
and productivity of business. The customer satisfaction helps in making business successful and
competitive in market (Elg and Hultman, 2016). Through understanding the buying behaviour of
consumers, company can better develop marketing mix. Therefore, before developing marketing
mix it is important to develop marketing mix by studying thoroughly regarding latest updates in
market. New market opportunities are also an importance which company can avail by
understanding the consumer buying behaviour. By understanding the consumer’s behaviour,
organisation can locate new market opportunities. Before purchasing the products, customer
analyse the quality, specification and cost of product. If they are unsatisfied with the produces
and services, there are various other options are available in market that sells same product with
better price. Understanding the behaviour of consumers is important for company as it helps in
segmenting the market effectively. The knowledge of buyer’s behaviour helps in making
efficient use of marketing resources. Organisation can focus on their marketing efforts in
efficient manner so that they can perform various marketing duties from overall management
process with greater productivity.
There are mainly four forms of buying behaviour such as complex, dissonance reducing, habitual
and variety seeking. The complex behaviours occur when consumers get very much involved in
purchase and focuses on brands and quality differences (Lahindah and Siahaan, 2018). In this
form of consumer buying behaviour, it is important for an organisation to support their buyers in
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terms of collecting information and also provide them complete information on comparing
product price and features. It is the responsibility of company to highlight the benefits of product
and also focus on influencing the buyer’s decisions to purchase the products. Dissonance
reducing behaviour is another form of buyer’s behaviour in which customers may face difficulty
to differentiate the brands. The buyers focus on collecting the data but they don’t make purchase
decision on the basis of collected data. They generally purchase the product based on price or
convenience (DEEN, H, 2021). Thus, customers generally don’t know much about the product
category. But after making the purchase, they experience some regret and realise that they have
to collect more information related to the goods. The other form of buying behaviour of
consumers is habitual behaviour. This form of consumer buying behaviour depicts that for few
products customers don’t think to make purchase decision like groceries. Another form of
consumer buying behaviour is variety seeking behaviour. In this form of consumer buying
behaviour, they probably seek for different variety in order to fulfil their basic needs and
requirements. There are five steps involved in consumer buying process such as problem
recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post purchase
decision.
What is the effects of Covid 19 pandemic on customer buying habits within Walmart?
According to Mason, Narcum and Mason (2020), COVID-19 pandemic has changed the
world from earlier position where people were more comfortable and comfortable in travelling to
new places and now most of the individuals are scared. The people are living differently,
purchasing differently and thinking differently about many things that are a part of their daily
life. Now consumers are looking for products that are hygienic and healthy in order to build
strong immunity for fighting with the deadly coronavirus. The supply chains of the company are
changing and most of the retailers are closing doors for continuing business in the time of Covid
-19. The coronavirus across the globe is reshaping and changing the consumer goods industry
because of changing needs and demands of customers regarding the purchase of goods and
services from the retail stores. Covid-19 has impacted the growth and profitability of the retail
industry because of complete lock-down situation. With the situation of pandemic people now
are responding in a different ways and possess different behaviours, attitudes and buying habits.
Some people fell stressed, anxious and worried by the fear of getting infected by the virus as it is
transmitted through person to person. Lock-down fundamentally changes the habits of the
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consumers and majorly preferred to buy products through online platforms in order to continue
the working operations within Walmart. Due to the effect of pandemic, customers are generally
moving towards increased awareness around health and hygienic to prevent from the infection
and to stay protected. Walmart is considered as a renowned supermarket retailer business that
deals in producing consumer goods and services for customers. As social distancing is
considered as the normal new due to the adverse effect of Covid-19 in the life of individuals, the
habits and nature of buying is changing with time and situations. The company is focusing to
move towards online shopping websites to provide customers the benefit of ordering products in
a easy and reliable manner through online stores. In order to sustain in the market during Covid-
19, it is important for the company to properly understand the changing needs and expectations
for increased sale and profitability (Nilufer, 2020). The company needs to adopt new technology
which helps in bringing new and innovative ways to provide customers the maximum benefits
for ordering products easily and conveniently with easy payment methods. The company is
highly focusing on training their employees to make them prepare for dealing with tough
situations. The shopping experience of customers has changed within the pandemic time as they
fear to do traditional shopping and majorly want to prefer online shopping for attaining high
growth and success. There are several trends that occur with the change in the consumer
behaviour towards buying products during Covid-19 which is explained below:
 Increased use of digital platforms – Covid-19 has accelerated the demand within
Walmart to shift towards digital methods from shopping to financial services of the
company. There is a steep rise in the sales of online products as consumers feel more
comfortable in ordering products online with the fear of not getting infected. This has
forced the company to put most of its products and services online for gaining more
growth and profitability in the competitive retail industry (Panwar, Pinkse and De
Marchi, 2022).
 Preferring online payments – Covid-19 has changed the buying behaviour of the
customers because they have to stay at home and are restricted to move out of their
houses which created a sense of fear in the minds of people. The preference of doing
payments online after purchasing products from Walmart, it is important for the company
to different modes of payment which can be assessed from the smartphones of customers.
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 Affected the purchasing power – Covid-19 has affected the financial condition of the
company which results in job loss, job cut and reduced salary among employees
(Rossolov, Aloshynskyi and Lobashov, 2022). Because of this the purchasing power of
customers gets affected as they spend money only on buying basic goods from Walmart.
The consumer behaviour of the customers gets affected as they cannot buy expensive
products from the store which reduces the company profitability and growth.
 Changing lifestyle – With the effect of pandemic globally has changed the lifestyle of
customers as they now prefer to buy only essential goods which are beneficial for them
and gives them maximum satisfaction (Weinstein, Anti and Ochoa, 2021). Changing
lifestyle has raised the demand for healthy and hygienic products in order to improve the
health of customers. Walmart needs to produce hygienic products and promote healthy
practices by way of social media which helps in gaining trust of customers that they
follow proper healthy and sanitized environment.
 Reduced expenditure – As the customers are staying at home and are only spending
money on essential food items for fulfilling their basic needs has resulted in saving their
extra expenditure (Ward, 2020). This helps them in saving money and purchasing
healthier food items from Walmart in order to increase the immunity power to fight the
risk of coronavirus. The company needs to focus on delivering products to their doorsteps
so that their time and effort get saved and follow proper precautionary method to reduce
the effect of coronavirus.
Thus, Covid-19 has affected the consumer buying behaviour both positively and negatively
within the company. It is necessary for the company to provide products on reasonable prices so
that every customer buys that product and gets the benefit of saving money. To meet the
changing demands and expectations of the customer, the company needs to follow healthy
practices and needs to promote products and services on social media so that customers feel safe
and satisfied while purchasing products.
What is the ways of mitigations to reduce the impact of Covid 19 pandemic in Walmart?
As per the view of Hobbs (2020), there are various ways and approaches used by Walmart
to mitigate the impact of Covid 19 on consumer buying behaviour. These ways are used by them
to in order to attract more buyers towards the brand products and services. This approaches are
also used by them in order to enhance their sale and improve their market image. it is very
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important for the Walmart to reduce the effect of pandemic because consumer is the king by their
behaviour and attitude companies’ sale increases and decreases. The ways which is adopted by
Walmart are as follow:
Adopting the strategy of social media marketing: To overcome for the challenges
companies adopt the strategy of social media marketing in order to promote their brand product
on various social media sides. This strategy is used by them so that they can aware the customer
about the goods and attract the target market. Walmart use this way because in recent time
digitalisation and social media are gaining more importance and this helps the company to
reduce the cold marketing method in the time of Covid 19 pandemic. This is one of the crucial
ways that is adopted by Walmart to change the consumer buying behaviour towards their brand
(Eger and et. al, 2021).
Adopting digital payment mode: This is the most crucial strategy which is adopted by
Walmart at the time of Covid 19 so that they can mitigate the risk of pandemic in effective
manner. digital payment means transferring money through online mode without involvement of
cash or currency. In this companies start using online payment mode like pay pal, card swiping,
scanner and many more. So that consumer feels safe and start making decision to purchase gods
from the brands. In recent time were digital mode is the safest way so to use this method will be
beneficial for the brand.
Analysing the need and wants at the time of pandemic: Another vital way that is used by
Walmart is inspecting the needs and wants of the buyers at pandemic so that they can influence
more buyers towards their brand. The company hire marketing expertise so that they can gain
insight about the need and then manufacture product accordingly. This helps them to mitigate the
risk of reducing customer base. In this they make sure that they supply more goods which are
needed by the buyers so that they can fulfil the demand of consumer which will helps them to
change the perception of the consumer toward Walmart in positive manner (Omar and et. al,
2021).
Offering more discount: To influence more purchaser towards the company Walmart start
offering more discount so that they can attract large audience. Walmart start selling their product
on discount rate so that consumer changes their perception towards other brand and can more
inclined towards the Walmart. This Strategy helps them a lot to mitigate the impact of Covid 19
pandemic on consumer behaviour and decision making.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology can be defined as an important element of the whole research as it
helps in gathering and analysing information about the selected topic in a summarised manner
(Mohajan, 2018). It helps the researcher in knowing the type of data and how the different
techniques results in collecting data about the selected research topic. Research methodology is
considered as a concept that helps in completing the whole research in an effective and scientific
way. It also helps the following researchers in gaining accurate information and data about the
chosen research study in a more detailed manner. In this present research, the researcher has
taken use of many tools, methods and choices in order to collect exact and valuable information
for the selected research topic. Aims and objectives of the research related project is being
gained by the help of the different methods used in the present carried on investigation in a more
successful way. This main section of research is also used by the authentic readers of the
researchers which results in gathering more reliability and validity of the following investigation
conducted n the selected topic (Pandey and Pandey, 2021). The researcher has used Saunders
Onion Framework research which mainly includes various different research related methods
that helps in collecting and interpreting data for carrying out the research in a proper way. These
research methods are explained as under:
Research philosophy
Research philosophy is a basic term that helps in defining about the set of framework that
generally helps in guiding about how the whole research will be conducted and how data will be
analysed and derived on the selected topic in an accurate way (Ngozwana, 2018). There are
mainly three types of research philosophy methods that help in carrying out the research in a
scientific manner such as positivism, interpretivism and realism philosophies. The researcher has
used positivism philosophy for carrying out the current research. The reason behind selecting this
type of philosophy is that it helps in gaining more reliable and valuable information about the
behaviour of the consumers in order to attain the desired aims and objectives of the research.
Research approach
Research approach is mainly defined as the process of planning and setting up steps to
analyse the strategic assumptions that are made by the investigators n the selected research study
or topic. It is the main strategy of the research methodology as it helps in analysing the
quantitative data in n appropriate manner. Research approach can mainly be defined as two types
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