Retailing during the COVID-19 lifecycle: a bibliometric study

Abstract

PurposeCOVID-19 disrupted the lives of consumers across the globe, and the retail sector has been one of the hardest hits. The impact of COVID-19 on consumers' retail choice behaviour and retailers' responses has been studied in detail through multiple lenses. Now that the effect of COVID-19 is abating, there is a need to consolidate the learnings during the lifecycle of COVID-19 and set the agenda for research post-COVID-19.Design/methodology/approachScopus database was searched to cull out academic papers published between March 2020 and June 6, 2022, using keywords; shopping behaviour, retailing, consumer behaviour, and retail channel choice along with COVID-19 (171 journals, 357 articles). Bibliometric analysis followed by selective content analysis was conducted.FindingsCOVID-19 was a black swan event that impacted consumers' psychology, leading to reversible and irreversible changes in retail consumer behaviour worldwide. Research on changes in consumer behaviour and consumption patterns has been mapped to the different stages of the COVID-19 lifecycle. Relevant research questions and potential theoretical lenses have been proposed for further studies.Originality/valueThis paper collates, classifies and organizes the extant research in retail from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies three retail consumption themes: short-term, long-term reversible and long-term irreversible changes. Research agenda related to the retailer and consumer behaviour is identified; for each of the three categories, facilitating the extraction of pertinent research questions for post-COVID-19 studies.

Food Retail Resilience Pre-, during, and Post-COVID-19: A Bibliometric Analysis and Research Agenda

“…Bibliometric analysis is a critical tool for conducting research in various fields, providing researchers with valuable insights into the publication patterns, research trends, and collaborations among researchers in a particular field [4,5]. The following paragraphs describe the steps taken in the bibliometric analysis conducted in this study, focusing on the selection of appropriate keywords, search strategy, and data collection process.…”

“…Despite the extensive research conducted during the pandemic, there is still a research gap in understanding the long-term effects of the pandemic on various sectors of the economy, including the retail sector. While some studies have looked at the post-pandemic period [5,82], there is a need for further research to explore the lasting changes in consumer behavior, decision-making, and habits that were brought about by the pandemic. Additionally, there is a need for research to investigate the potential long-term effects of policy interventions implemented during the pandemic on various sectors of the economy.…”

Digital technology-empowered omnichannel integration: a review and research agenda

“…Between 2003 and 2012, the number of publications was one or less, but began to increase in 2013. The number of publications has increased since 2019 because the COVID-19 pandemic has permanently changed the habits, expectations (Chopdar et al, 2022;Agrawal, 2023) and interactions of customers with retailers (Roggeveen and Sethuraman, 2020;Gupta et al, 2023). This has accelerated the retail industry's transition to digital technology-enabled omnichannel operations (Bick et al, 2022), as well as academia's continued focus on digital technology and omnichannel convergence research (Cai and Lo, 2020).…”

“…The number of publications has increased since 2019 because the COVID-19 pandemic has permanently changed the habits, expectations (Chopdar et al. , 2022; Agrawal, 2023) and interactions of customers with retailers (Roggeveen and Sethuraman, 2020; Gupta et al. , 2023).…”

Exploring personal savings versus hedonic consumption in the new normal

“…This study thus extends the empirical application of this phenomenon in retailing and proposes it as a potential moderator for hedonic consumption choices. Personal savings versus hedonic consumption 6.2 Practical implications COVID-19 has undoubtedly resulted in a major change in the global retail landscape, resetting the consumer priorities for hedonic and luxury products/services (Gupta et al, 2023). The practical implications include expanding the target segment for hedonic goods, enabling the consumers to upgrade to hedonic products and services through easier financing schemes, leveraging the preference for health and life insurance products by using them as bundled offers with other hedonic and luxury products, and align the communication strategies to induce favourable response from fast LHS consumers.…”