COVID-19 Impacts on Online and In-Store Shopping Behaviors: Why they Happened and Whether they Will Last Post Pandemic

Abstract

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s online and in-store shopping behaviors changed significantly. As the pandemic subsides, key questions are why those changes happened, whether they are expected to stay, and, if so, to what extent. We answered those questions by analyzing a quasi-longitudinal survey dataset of the Puget Sound residents (Washington, U.S.). We deployed structural equation modeling (SEM) to build separate models for food, grocery, and other items shopping to explore the factors affecting such changes. The results revealed that people’s online and in-store shopping frequencies during the pandemic were affected by their perceived health risk, attitudes toward shopping, and pre-pandemic shopping frequencies. Similarly, it was shown that how frequently people expect to shop post pandemic is influenced by their attitudes toward shopping, changes during the pandemic, and their pre-pandemic frequencies. We also classified respondents into five groups, based on their current and expected future shopping behavior changes, and performed a descriptive analysis. The five groups— Increasers, Decreasers, Steady Users, Returnees, and Future Changers—exhibited different trends across online and in-store activities for shopping different goods. The analysis results showed that, while 25% of the respondents increased their online shopping, only 8% to 13% decreased their in-store activities, implying that online shopping did not completely substitute in-store shopping. Moreover, we found that online shopping is a substitution for in-store shopping for groceries, while it complements in-store shopping for food and other items. Additionally, more than 75% of new online shoppers expect to keep purchasing online, while 63%–85% of in-store Decreasers plan to return to their pre-pandemic frequencies.

The invisible hand of touch: Testing a tactile sensation‐choice satisfaction model in online shopping

“…Prior research has found that consumers who rely heavily on product touch do prefer to make their purchase decisions through traditional offline stores, as a physical prepurchase touch is feasible (Citrin et al, 2003). Consumers' It is suggested that the brain may experience the mental simulation of touch without any actual tactile input (Ebisch et al, 2008). Overmars and Poels (2015) demonstrate that in online shopping, simulated TSs can be a crucial factor for understanding products.…”

“…Bringing shops into homes and consumers embracing more digital technologies are among the outcomes of the pandemic (Sheth, 2020; Truong & Truong, 2022). More than 75% of new online shoppers, who started to shop online since the pandemic, believe that they will continue to purchase online afterward (Diaz‐Gutierrez et al, 2023). Additionally, there has been continuous development in technology in the retailing environment.…”

Analysis of Consumer Sentiments towards Online Shopping Using Context-Free Grammar and Deep Learning

“…Even though the outbreak has been declining, consumers' positive attitude and preference for online shopping continue to persist and are expected to increase even further in the future. In comparison, in-store shopping has decreased proportionally to one-third to half of online shopping instances [3]. Nevertheless, it does not necessarily mean that all products available on online shopping platforms will be popular and produce massive sales.…”

The Interaction Between the Recent Evolution of Working from Home and Online Shopping

“…before the pandemic, rose to 89% at wave 1, and subsequently decreased to 72.5% at wave 3 of the pandemic (Baumann et al, 2023). Online shopping, however, experienced a sustained increase suggested by researchers during the lockdown period as well as the post-pandemic era (Brůhová Foltýnová and Brůha, 2024;Diaz-Gutierrez et al, 2023).…”

“…before the pandemic, rose to 89% at wave 1, and subsequently decreased to 72.5% at wave 3 of the pandemic (Baumann et al, 2023). Online shopping, however, experienced a sustained increase suggested by researchers during the lockdown period as well as the post-pandemic era (Brůhová Foltýnová and Brůha, 2024;Diaz-Gutierrez et al, 2023).Observing huge shifts to WFH and online shopping, these ICT-based activities as part of travel demand management, provide transportation planners and policymakers with an opportunity to address transportation system issues such as urban congestion and GHG emissions (Hensher et al, 2022;Shabanpour et al, 2018). Hence, it is critical to understand what in uences individuals' decisions on WFH and online shopping, as well as the interrelationship between these two behaviors.…”