Sustainable Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic on Consumer Behaviour

Abstract: The purpose of this research paper is to examine the impact of Covid 19 pandemic and lockdown on consumer behavior. During lockdown consumers have experienced restrictions on their offline purchasing habits. During lockdown situation consumers were forced to go for online shopping even for staples. While consumption is habitual it is also contextual. Context matters and there are four major contexts which govern or disrupt consumer habits. The first is change in the social context by such life events as marriage, having children and moving from one city to another. The social context includes workplace, community, neighbours, and friends. The second context is technology. And as breakthrough technologies emerge, they break the old habits. The most dramatic technology breakthroughs in recent years are smart phones, internet and ecommerce. Online search and online ordering have dramatically impacted the way we shop and consumer products and services. Immediate effects of Covid-19 pandemic on consumption and consumer behaviour are summarized by Sheth (2020). This paper intends to study the sustainability of these immediate effects, viz, improvisation, hoardings, technology adoption and online buying habits on consumption behaviour. Consumer survey is conducted by circulating structured questionnaire. Relevant responses were analysed to do hypothesis testing. The responses are measured on Likert scale. Findings of the study confirmed that hypothesized relationship of immediate effects of Covid -19 will sustain as change in consumer behaviour.

Keywords: Sustainable Effect, Online Buying, Hoarding, Improvisation, Technology Adoption