The Future Consumption Habits: Impact of COVID-19

Amandeep Dhaliwal

and Shilpa Arora

Faculty of Management Studies, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research & Studies, Faridabad, India.

Keywords: Consumption Pattern, Consumer Behaviour, COVID-19, Stockpiling, Qualitative Analysis.

Abstract: COVID-19 epidemic has transformed the world we live in. The lockdowns, social distancing, isolation, and

work from home have had a far-reaching impact on people and their buying behavior. This qualitative research

study intends to investigate the multipronged impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on consumer behavior. It

intends to study theoretically the main trends that have emerged during Covid-19 which would impact

people’s consumption behavior and patterns. The study would be carried out by theoretically analyzing the

main trends that have evolved during the Covid-19 that can have a long-term impact on Consumption patterns.

Many countries are experiencing waves of Covid and depending upon the severity; the new trends are

emerging and evolving as the countries are struggling to face this global crisis. The results of the study would

be helpful for understanding the future of consumer consumption habits and patterns so that the corporate and

companies’ too can evolve at the same pace in a similar direction.

1 INTRODUCTION

The first few cases of Corona virus disease 2019

(COVID-19) were first detected in China in late 2019.

From there on, it spread rapidly across the world. In

March 2020, the WHO declared it to be a global

pandemic. The modern century was witnessing such

a pandemic for the first time where they had no

knowledge about how to deal with such epidemic.

Some of the recommended suggestions by medical

fraternity were the social distancing, isolation and

quarantining. This brought the normal life to

standstill, for many countries across the world went

into complete lockdowns. It brought a new way of life

for many as people were stuck at home working from

this safe space.

The Corona virus or Covid- 19 has also impacted

the consumption patterns all over the world (Eftimov,

2020). All consumption including shopping;

searching for information and post consumption

waste disposal is location and time bound. Consumers

develop habits over time about what to consume,

when and where (Sheath, 2020). These consumption

habits are repetitive and hence highly predictable. So

far, the companies like those selling FMCG products

have been forecasting their production numbers based

https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-6545-1449

https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-6919-2069

on many good predictive models and consumer

insights which look at the data of the past repetitive

buying behavior at the individual level. But with

Covid-19, things have changed drastically. The

sudden onslaught of Covid leading to emergent

lockdowns and curfews lefts the companies in tizzy

with no idea about how to predict for the uncertain

consumption behavior in these uncertain times.

Hence it is extremely important to the trends that have

emerged so far and how do they impact the

consumption patterns.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Covid -19 has not only changed the economies of the

nations but also changed the market dynamics. The

research of the current times reveals that consumption

patterns are changing. People tend to spend less of

their income on non-essential items such as clothing,

shoes, make-up, jewellery, games and electronics (iRi

POS data, 2020). Rather a panic kind of behavior is

seen amongst people. Abe (2020) discovered the

Covid behavior such as closure of non-essential

businesses, people raiding grocery stores for

Dhaliwal, A. and Arora, S.

The Future Consumption Habits: Impact of COVID –19.

DOI: 10.5220/0010828200003168

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Finance, Information Technology and Management (ICFITM 2021), pages 11-15

ISBN: 978-989-758-576-0

stockpiling to cancellation of the most significant

world events.

The spread of Covid -19 has especially impacted

the Consumer food shopping behavior and

consumption and brought in tremendous change. The

threat of COVID led to panicked shopping behaviors

where people hoarded in great amount which resulted

in stock‐outs and purchasing limits on many food

items (Schneeweiss & Murtaugh, 2020). Such

behaviors not only exposed the human nature but also

shed light on a complete distrust in the global supply

chains. Recent literature has shown that a perceived

scarcity of products can significantly affect consumer

choices (Hamilton et al., 2019; Pantano et al., 2020).

Another far reaching consequence of the

lockdown and no accessibility of retail stores was

immediate increase in demand for alternative

distribution channels. Unexpected regulations

imposing social distancing are further having a vast

impact on consumers’ favored channel for shopping

(Eger et al., 2020). For example, the online grocery

shopping witnessed significantly increased growth

and demand during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis

(Pantano et al., 2020). This was also a introduction of

new way of shopping for the older and less digitally-

savvy consumers who discovered the online no

contact delivery for the first time and have started

enjoying this online shopping channels like Amazon

and others (Kirk and Rifkin, 2020). The report by

CZSO reports that the share of Czechs shopping

online this year has increased from 39% to 54% year-

on-year (CZSO, 2020).

Another aspect has been the growth in creativity.

Merceir et al. (2020) in their study of French argued

that in spite of the negative outcomes of Covid, the

lockdown have fostered creativity in the people.

People are able to reduce their boredom of strict

lockdown measures by pursuing creative activities

(Faranda and Alberti, 2020) in general. The

pandemic lead to shutdown of schools and companies

wherein the students and the professionals have been

forced to work from home (Alon et al., 2020).This

has deeply impacted the work–life balance, as the

official hrs tend to overlap the personal hours in such

situations especially for women (Carlson, Petts, &

Pepin, 2020). Covid 19 led to people having more

time free at hand. This increased the social

connectivity with increase in phoning or video-

calling friends or family. Even there was an increase

in messaging friends or family through email, text, or

messaging services (Fancourt, 2020).Other than the

negative consequences, Covid-19 also had positive

aspect with people finding more time to pursue other

activities such as exercising, going for walks,

gardening, pursuing hobbies, and taking care of

children were the activities associated with the

greatest affective benefits (Lades et al., 2020).

Thus Covid -19 brought in changes in Consumer

behavior in general life some positive and some

negative. Some researchers speculate that once we

emerge from the aftermath of COVID‐19, behaviors

will return to normal, while others suggest that

behaviors will stick and set a new trajectory.

Therefore it is important to understand all these

aspects in detail and identify the main emerging

themes that can impact the consumption patterns of

Future. The in depth analysis of the extensive

literature available on Covid 19 patterns brought

forward few main themes that are explained in

Section IV of the paper.

3 RESEARCH METHDOLOGY

The research journey began with finding an array of

papers which were focused on consumer buying

behavior and patterns during Covid 19 as well as an

analysis of relevant published surveys during

COVID-19. The key words such as Consumer

Behavior, Covid 19, Buying patterns, consumption

etc. were used to search the databases such as

Clarivate analytics, Scopus, web of Science,

Thomson Reuters, EBSCO, Google scholar etc.

Initially papers were shortlisted on their relevance of

abstract and those found relevant were then further

analyzed. In end 45 papers were found to be most

relevant to the theme of the study which was then

examined in depth. This article overall examined the

main changes in consumer behaviour caused by the

COVID-19 environment and subsequent lockdown

period. Further literature was also explored to find out

the reasons of these behavioural changes in consumer

decision-making process in times of crisis.

4 ANALYSIS

On the basis of literature available and after detailed

analysis of the selected theme changing customer

pattern, following factors has emerged as strong ones

which will have a huge and long term impact on

changing customer habits and needs.

Stockpiling Behavior. The anxiety induced by the

pandemic perpetuated stockpiling behaviors (Hobbs,

2020). Analysis by DecaData shows that the panic‐

buying behaviors of consumers began on March 10,

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as purchases of hand sanitizer, household cleaners,

facial tissue, and toilet paper increased to nearly 30

times the rate from earlier weeks. Purchases of these

items levelled off by the end of March. However, this

may have been attributed to inventory stock‐outs

rather than settled behaviors (DecaData, 2020).

Furthermore, stock‐outs could effectively perpetuate

negative consumer attitudes and contribute to greater

levels of uncertainty, as shoppers arrived at the store

only to find aisles of empty shelves, and were left

without information about when essential items

would become available again. These observations

are not unlike those established in the literature that

evaluates consumer‐purchasing behavior surrounding

natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and

floods (Dovarganes, 2005).

Creativity. Complete lockdown, self isolation and

physical disconnect with social life has resulted into

boredom and also impacted the mental health of the

people. New generation who has a habit of social

gatherings are now complaining stress, unrest

sleeping patterns and other psychological and mental

problems (Kapoor et al., 2020). Researchers believed

that with these constraints consumers has to move to

new ways of enjoying life by discarding the old habits

of social gatherings etc (Merceir et al., 2020).

Pandemic has made people to learn new things where

Zoom funeral services and Side walk weddings are

examples of such creativity and breakdown of old set

habits (Salje et al., 2020)

Change in Purchase Pattern. As pandemic has

stopped the ways of earnings for many people that has

resulted in the change in demand of some luxury

items like automobiles, home appliances etc. Due to

uncertainty in getting income or profits has developed

a pattern in society of postponement of purchasing

luxury items and deferring the payment and

consumption of discretionary products and services

(Eger et al., 2020). It is also concluded that this

uncertainty has now shifted the demand pattern from

now to future which has put challenges in front of big

companies to come up with some new set of

strategies. A new concept of pent up demand has also

been studied during this crisis which is still into

discussion on different platforms as few economists

believe that this new concept is somewhere linked

with the terms GDP, National income and growth of

the country which are commonly used, discussed and

part of macro environment (Kirk and Rifkin, 2020)..

Exploring New Online Platforms. Due to

Pandemic, Use of excessive online platforms and

exploration of digital tools has put a huge impact on

Consumer daily lives. Stringent regulations and new

rule structure and an every time message of social

distancing have impacted sales of big shopping malls

that were earlier in high demand among customers.

Pantano et al. (2020) touches on that consumers are

unearthing the convenience and benefits of online

sales services after revaluation of their shopping

habits. This has caused a change in tide of the

behaviour of consumers toward online purchases due

to the safety and comfort aligned with the home

delivery and in-store pickups. Exploring new

technological tools, new patterns of shopping, new

shopping sites are some results of pandemic on

society and environment (Vlassis, 2021; Carrillo,

2020).

Products at Door Step. Due to Pandemic and

stringent rules and regulations of government in

various countries like India, Italy etc to shut down

market and departmental stores it’s become difficult

for consumers to fulfill their basic needs. In such a

situation, Companies has made the things easy for

them by delivering necessary items at door step. Not

only grocery items and other necessary things but

education and health services are equally at door step

and just a call away (Pantano et al., 2020). In such a

scenario we can easily conclude that digitization has

made a reverse flow of work, healthcare services,

shopping and most important education from physical

stores to online platforms at home. Home delivery of

almost every basic need has broken the old habits of

the customers of visiting physical stores and big

shopping malls (Kirk and Rifkin, 2020). In respect to

the above changes in consumer pattern which has

resulted in convenience and personalization has also

put forward a question for the researchers- whether

this changing pattern and facility of In home

everything would impact consumer buying pattern of

unplanned and planned consumption or put new

challenges in future (Hamilton et al., 2020).

Work Life Imbalance. Work from home, limited

space, off to social gatherings, multitasking, all these

have made the people sit at one place like prisoners in

the jail. Pandemic has no doubt resulted in taking

away the social life and space from people. People of

almost all the age whether kids, teenagers, adults or

senior citizens all are more or less affected by the

pandemic wave. Be at home has not only increased

the work but has also resulted in increase in needs and

demands with limited resources available (Alon et al.,

2020). This increase burden of work has removed the

partition between work life and personal life of the

people which needs to be cemented again to make

The Future Consumption Habits: Impact of COVID –19

effective balance between home and work (Carlson,

Petts, & Pepin, 2020).

Connecting Globally. Pandemic though has resulted

into destruction and shutting of various sources of

earning for people but the only thing which seems to

be positive is because of work from home, people has

now understood the value of their family members,

friends and close ones. They now looked towards

their better half’s, friends and close buddies with a

hope to share their stories and experiences which in

turn make them remember the days of their college

and family occasions (Fancourt, 2020). Scheduled get

together and be in touch with the old ones to share

experiences and special moments has now become so

common and regular among people that they are now

enjoying and considering it the best moments of their

life. It is a stage when we all are packed in four walls

and connecting with each other globally through

various social online platforms like Zoom, Whatsapp.

As more and more people has moved to digital

platforms and now exploring new technologies and

adapting it at faster speed, it’s high time that we could

see a change in consumer behavior towards the

adoption of these new technologies and its usage to

them which has make their life easier or complex.

New Skill Set. Due to Pandemic which has forced the

people to work from home has also given a wide

scope of exploring new things. Availability of time

has engaged them in new creative hobbies like

experimenting new recopies, playing music and

sharing their knowledge and skills with others

through varied online platforms (Valdez, 2020). This

has not only given them chance to show their talent

or to add value to their skill set but also given them

ample amount of time to explore the online shopping

sites in more creative manner (Lades et al., 2020).

With this added advantage to the consumer skill set

of exploring new things, they are now turning to be

producers coming up with new possibilities of

commercializing products on different platforms like

YouTube etc.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Covid – 19 has brought in new era, a new way of

living. The consumer behavior and consumption

patterns have changed maybe forever. Producers,

Wholesalers and Retailers are well aware of this fact

that pandemic has changed the game and it would

affect the level of selling and marketing of their

products. These businesses therefore need to adapt

with the changing pattern and huge demands as they

have little time to respond and take action and shift to

online distribution. On the other side, it is also seen

that customers who were previously purchasing the

brands and the non essential items in large quantity

have stopped doing that for the current time. But

majority of researchers have predicted that they will

be surely return to their normal habits of purchase

though medium might be different this time.

Pandemic has impacted all the sectors where the

Offline stores bore the brunt while the online had a

tremendous growth. Thus in end we can conclude that

Covid -19 has changed some consumer habits forever

while in case of some habits they shall return to the

pre Covid times. The Corporate and the retailers

should therefore be ready to adapt to both the

circumstances.

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