Change of Consumption Behaviours in the Pandemic of COVID-19: Examining Residents’ Consumption Expenditure and Driving Determinants

Abstract

This study investigated changes of individuals’ consumption behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic and explored the driving determinants in consumption expenditure in Zhejiang China. Based on the 454 samples of survey data, which were collected in 2020 and 2021, it showed a reduction trend in consumption expenditure during the pandemic. Compared to the consumptions before the pandemic, money spent on housing, food, and beverage did not change too much. However, expenditures on wearing, recreation, and education reduced. Age, family size, and household income were significant to the expenditure changes. Online shopping became an important alternative way for residents during the pandemic and the trend is expected to continue even after the pandemic. Based on the findings, suggestions are summarized as two points. First, the young and single residents are the main group for recovering the consumption for wearing, recreation, education, and public transport. Meanwhile, to improve the satisfactions in online shopping, regulations should be issued by the government in improving the quality of goods and service.

Is Covid‐19 changing sustainable consumer behavior? A survey of Italian consumers

“…Over 40% of the respondents decreased the frequency of public transport use. This result is consistent with Anke et al ( 2021 ), König and Dreßler ( 2021 ), Xiong et al ( 2021 ), and Degli Esposti et al ( 2021 ). Similarly, around 22% of respondents reduced the frequency of using car‐sharing, a result consistent with the studies by Degli Esposti et al ( 2021 ) and Wang et al ( 2021 ).…”

“…More than 50% of respondents increased the frequency of purchasing products online. This result is consistent with other recent studies conducted on several countries, such as Italy (Alaimo et al, 2020 ; Principato et al, 2020 ), Republic of Korea (Moon et al, 2021 ), the United States (Wang et al, 2020 ), China (Xiong et al, 2021 ), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Ben Hassen et al, 2021 ). Around 50% of respondents avoided, more often, the purchase of non‐essential products, consistently with results by Mehta et al ( 2020 ).…”

“…Both the above‐mentioned results could be related to the high risk of contagion associated with these means of transport. The overall use of cars seems not changed, resulting not in line with the study of Anke et al ( 2021 ), Xiong et al ( 2021 ), and Wang et al ( 2021 ), which found an increase in the car use by German, Chinese, and United States customers due to the pandemic. Around 20% of respondents increased the frequency of using sustainable means of transport (e.g., bicycle).…”

“…According to the literature, the Covid‐19 pandemic has also affected mobility patterns. Several studies (e.g., Anke et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2021 ; Xiong et al, 2021 ) reported large shifts in consumer mobility behaviors, characterized by drastic reductions in the use of public transport and a relevant increase in active mobility and car usage. König and Dreßler ( 2021 ) found that consumers living in rural communities reduced the use of busses and cars and increased the use of bikes.…”

“…In particular, there is the need to further investigate whether and the extent to which the current pandemic is inspiring pro‐environmental attitudes (Peluso et al, 2021 ), as well as to better understand the impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic on environmental concerns and sustainable consumer behavior (Jian et al, 2020 ; Sarkis et al, 2020 ). Moreover, as many of these studies highlighted that the impacts of the Covid‐19 pandemic on consumer behavior might be different according to several consumers' socio‐demographic characteristics ‐ such as age, gender, income, and education (Dhir et al, 2021 ; Li et al, 2021 ; Peluso et al, 2021 ; Rodgers et al, 2021 ; Severo et al, 2021 ; Vittuari et al, 2021 ; Xiong et al, 2021 ) ‐ there is the need to consider this issue in the analysis.…”