COVID-19 Pandemic's Impact on Customer Behavior and Online Shopping

This report investigates the significant shifts in customer behavior during the COVID-19 global pandemic, with a specific focus on the prevailing rise of online shopping and delivery options. The research delves into the factors that have contributed to this surge, including convenience, time-saving benefits, and wider product variety. The study also analyzes the impact of these changes on the retail industry, including reduced brand loyalty and the increasing importance of online reviews and company websites. The methodology employs a quantitative research approach, collecting data through questionnaires and analyzing it using Microsoft Excel. Ethical considerations such as confidentiality and anonymity are addressed, while acknowledging research limitations related to time and resources. The report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the pandemic has reshaped consumer habits and the future of the retail landscape.

Is customer behaviour change during
COVID-19 Global pandemic prevailing a rise
of online shopping and delivery options

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................3
Background of Research.........................................................................................................3
Research Aim.........................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives...............................................................................................................3
Research Question..................................................................................................................3
Rationale of Research.............................................................................................................3
PRILIMINARY CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................5
Factors that impact the rise in online shopping and customer’s behaviour............................5
Factors impacting the rise in online shopping and delivery options......................................6
Impact of online shopping on the retail industry....................................................................6
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................8
Research methods...................................................................................................................8
Sampling.................................................................................................................................8
Data collection methods.........................................................................................................8
Data analysis methods............................................................................................................9
Ethical considerations.............................................................................................................9
Research limitations...............................................................................................................9
RESOURCES..................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

TITLE: Is customer behaviour change during COVID-19 Global pandemic prevailing a
rise of online shopping and delivery options
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Background of Research
Online shopping explained as activity or action of purchasing products or services over Internet.
It is related to process of buying products from the merchants which sell over internet. Online
shopping helps consumers to save time as well as cost. During the COVID-19, customers prefer
to buy the products and services online as they will not go outside the house for purchase any
item. The consumer behaviour is changing and it will remain the post- pandemic. The E-
Commerce is on rise, some of the other contactless and digital services such as delivery, curbside
pickup and the drive- through services are seeking more adaption rates. Its live streamlining is
mainly expected to gain the popularity with brand that leveraging the virtual reality in order to
make shopping experience immersive (Chauhan and Shah, 2020). Other than this, COVID-19 is
reshaping customer products in real time, quick accelerating the long term that underlying trends
in space. New habits of customers developed that will be endure crisis, changing value
permanently and shop.
Research Aim
The aim of present investigation is “To examine the customer behaviour, change during
COVID-19 Global pandemic, prevailing a rise of online shopping and delivery options.”
Research Objectives
 To analyse the factors that impact the rise in online shopping and customer’s behaviour.
 To identify the factors impacting the rise in online shopping and delivery options.
 To analyse the impacts of online shopping on the retail industry.
Research Question
“Is customer behaviour change during COVID-19 Global pandemic, prevailing a rise of
online shopping and delivery options?
Rationale of Research
The present investigation is related to customer behaviour change during COVID-19
Global pandemic, prevailing a rise of online shopping and delivery options. This helps in
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providing the deep understanding regarding the rise of online shopping. The main reason to
conduct present investigation is that it provides the in-depth understanding as well as analysis of
particular subject area. There can be examined the way in which consumer behaviour can be
impacted by COVID-19 pandemic situation. This is helpful in enhancing the skills and core-
competencies of an investigator to conduct similar kind of investigation in future.
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PRILIMINARY CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Factors that impact the rise in online shopping and customer’s behaviour
According to viewpoint of Wiebke Reile (2020) Online shopping is form of the electronic
commerce that permit the customers to purchase products or services directly from seller over
Internet. Main purpose of the online shopping is to save money and time. With the help of this,
an individual can save the valuable time. There are some factors given below which impact
online shopping:
Product Risk: In online shopping the customer does not touch the product and have limited
information available on the sited which is a major issue faced by the people purchasing the
goods online in the market.
Non -delivery: Sometimes the customers do not get the product deliver to them which is
also an issue and sometime the products are damaged it is the biggest fear faced by the people in
the online shopping.
Return policy: In online shopping return policy is the major issue faced by the people as
it consumes more time and some time the return cost also deducts and consumer cannot get the
product on time due to their policy of return (He and Harris, 2020).
Financial risk: This is the risk faced by the people in the online purchasing of the
product as they think the extra money they have to pay and sometimes the card gets blocked they
can’t pay.
As contrary to this, VALENTIN RADU (2020) stated that consumer behaviour is study
how the consumers, groups and company choose and buy the products and services in order to
satisfy wants and requirements. There are some factors given below which affecting the
consumer behaviour:
Psychological Factors: This factor helps in defining the behaviour of the customer on the
basis of the motivation, learning, perception and attitudes and beliefs of the people.
Social factors: this factor is a human social being factors in which the people are
influenced by their societies in which they live and wanted to accept by the society.
Marketing campaign: It develops impact on the buying decision of customers. If it done
right with the correct marketing message they it is necessary to persuade the customers to make
change in brands.
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Factors impacting the rise in online shopping and delivery options
According to opinion of Jozef Bucko (2020) In COVID-19 pandemic situation, there is rise
in online sales over last decade that is linked to enhanced in internet use. The changes in internet
use and spending habits have been resulted in better development in the online sales but the
natural tendency for some people to purchase goods from store. There are some factors given
which impacting rise in the online shopping:
Convenience- It is one of the main factor that helps in rise in online shopping. Several
people would stop through local store easier than ordering online and also getting this shipped.
The main convenience of online shopping is not to go to the stores and compare the product on
main sites by one click.
Save time- Consumers who do not want to stand in the query of cash counters pay for
goods which have been buy through them. They can be shop from work place or home. They can
look for goods which are needed through them by entering key words.
Variety- Online choice are effective as customers can search item or brand which they are
looking for. They can get in on latest international trend without spending the money. The people
can able to shop from the retailers in some other part of state and country. There is more section
about the size and colours than they will search locally at disposal (Rowan and Galanakis, 2020).
The delivery options mainly consist the delivery time and delivery charge. The delivery
chare is service cost that mainly used to transport products from seller to place of buyer. The
customers purchase goods from retail shops and based on comparison of product cost based on
distance that covers delivery point of customers. On the other hand, delivery time is mainly taken
from product order to product delivery to customers. The consumers are expecting about quick
delivery as this mainly provokes buying curiosity.
Impact of online shopping on the retail industry
On the basis of Kate Rooney (2020), Online shopping let the consumer reviews many
items in single place and also pay from comfort of homes. It has impacted the offline retail
organisations to be stay in competition with online stores. Online shopping is like of the e-
commerce that mainly permit the consumers directly to buy the services and products over web
by virtual store. Impact of the online shopping on retail sector mention below:
Reduce in brand loyalty- When the online shopping was introduced, customers could
able to compare the many products as well as brand before going to store. in regards to this, there
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are specialised sites for an instance Shopping FM that gather better deals with single click of
button. But now the customers go to store in order to looking for particular brand as well as cost
on the basis of online reviews.
Online Reviews- Before the online shopping, an individual asked family or friend
regarding goods that they are considering for buy. In this present time, customers search on
websites, social media, blogs of an organisations for the purpose of recommendations and
product reviews. When the customers make trip to store, they know already regarding goods and
brand which they are consider for purchasing (Sarkis and et. al., 2020).
Company websites- Retail firms are turning to websites in order to push people to come in
stores and make purchase. The consumer will search firms providing coupons on websites. They
can use coupon for the in- store purchase.
Online engagement- It mainly goes beyond following or liking Instagram account or
Facebook page of company. When any brand posts the enthusiastic posts that mostly convey
value and mission statements as this assists to make deep connection with customers.
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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
Research methods
The research methods are strategies, techniques and processes which mainly use in
gathering data and evidence for analysis purpose to uncover the new information. There are
quantitative or qualitative two different types of research methods. In this present research, there
will be quantitative research method used as it is more effective and helpful in providing the
facts and figures regarding the particular area (Sharma and et. al., 2020).
Advantages and Disadvantages regarding Quantitative research method mention below:
Advantages Disadvantages
This research method is easy to be analyse. It is complex to understand context of
phenomenon.
Data can be precise, reliable and consistent. In this method, data may not robust to define
the complex problems.
Sampling
Sampling refers to process that mainly used in the statistical analysis to predetermined
number of the observations which taken from large number of population. Probabilistic and non-
probabilistic are two different sampling method. Among the two, there will be random sampling
method used in probabilistic sampling. There will be 40 sample size used as they are the
employees. These respondents are chosen by using random sampling method as this method is
effective in providing the equal chance to chosen respondents (Silva and et. al., 2020).
Data collection methods
Data collection is defined as process of collecting and analysing data in an established
manner which enable collector to answer hypothesis and also examine the outcomes of specific
collection. The primary and secondary are two different types of data collection methods. The
primary method is related to collect data by use of different sources such as questionnaire,
observation, interviews and others. The secondary method consists sources like books, articles,
scholars, internet sources and others.
In conducting the present investigation, there will be primary method of data collection
used in which questionnaire will be developed regarding the particular subject area.
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Advantages Disadvantages
The primary investigation meets particular
requirements.
It is complex and time consuming.
It belongs to an investigator to give reliable
results.
If sample is not big then research outcomes
may be misleading.
Data analysis methods
It is process of cleansing, modelling, inspecting and transforming with aim of searching the
useful information and supporting the decision making. In collection of information,
questionnaire will be used. In analysis of data, Microsoft Excel will be used as it helps in
developing themes and graphs.
Ethical considerations
Following all the ethical consideration is helpful in providing the positive research
outcomes. In conducting the research, the confidentiality and anonymity are two ethical issues
arise. Both are related with the modern investigation that consists gathering sensitive and
personal information from research participants through an investigator. It is necessary for an
investigator to maintain the confidentiality and anonymity as these ethical practices are mainly
designed to protect privacy od while gathering and analysis data (Tuli and et. al., 2020).
Research limitations
Time, cost and resources are the different research limitations which arise while conducting
an investigation. Unavailability of limited resources such as interne, finance, technology and
others are arisen the main issues. Cost was not sufficient to doing all the research activities. Time
was not sufficient to perform all the research related activities within given time period. To
manage these both limitations, researcher developed the time management plan and divide all the
activities of research accordingly.
RESOURCES
The resources are necessary to conduct the investigation for getting positive outcomes. In
conducting the present investigation, there has been primary and secondary both sources used. In
primary method, there will be questionnaire mentioned to develop. It consists the different
questions regarding the particular subject area. Other than this, there will be secondary method
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also used by consisting different sources for an instance articles, scholars, journals, books and
others. These both sources are helpful in providing the reliable and authentic information in
order to getting positive outcomes (Vanapalli and et. al., 2020).
Gantt chart
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Chauhan, V. and Shah, M.H., 2020. An Empirical Analysis into Sentiments, Media Consumption
Habits, and Consumer Behaviour during the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Outbreak. Purakala with ISSN, pp.0971-2143.
He, H. and Harris, L., 2020. The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Corporate Social
Responsibility and Marketing Philosophy. Journal of Business Research.
Rowan, N.J. and Galanakis, C.M., 2020. Unlocking challenges and opportunities presented by
COVID-19 pandemic for cross-cutting disruption in agri-food and green deal
innovations: Quo Vadis?. Science of the Total Environment, p.141362.
Sarkis, J. and et. al., 2020. A brave new world: lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for
transitioning to sustainable supply and production. Resources, Conservation, and
Recycling.
Sharma, M. and et. al., 2020. Developing a framework for enhancing survivability of sustainable
supply chains during and post-COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Logistics
Research and Applications, pp.1-21.
Silva, A.L.P. and et. al., 2020. Increased plastic pollution due to COVID-19 pandemic:
Challenges and recommendations. Chemical Engineering Journal, p.126683.
Tuli, S., and et. al., 2020. Predicting the Growth and Trend of COVID-19 Pandemic using
Machine Learning and Cloud Computing. Internet of Things, p.100222.
Vanapalli, K.R. and et. al., 2020. Challenges and strategies for effective plastic waste
management during and post COVID-19 pandemic. Science of The Total
Environment, 750, p.141514.
Online
Bucko, J., 2020. Online shopping: Factors that affect consumer purchasing behaviour. [Online].
Available through:
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311975.2018.1535751>.
Radu, V., 2020. Consumer behavior in marketing – patterns, types, segmentation. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.omniconvert.com/blog/consumer-behavior-in-
marketing-patterns-types-segmentation.html>.
Reile, W., 2020. Factors Influencing Online Shopping Behavior of Consumers. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.searchfit.com/2017/05/01/factors-influencing-online-
shopping-behavior-consumers/>.
Rooney. K., 2020. Online shopping overtakes a major part of retail for the first time ever.
[Online]. Available through: <https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/02/online-shopping-
officially-overtakes-brick-and-mortar-retail-for-the-first-time-ever.html>.
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