The impact of emotions on shopping behavior during epidemic. What a business can do to protect customers

Abstract

The study investigated how the perception of in‐shop COVID‐19 contraction influences emotions in decision‐making and how they further effect actions undertaken by consumers to control the situation within a store. Structural equation modeling was used to study the relationship between the risk of in‐store infection, emotions and in‐shop behavior, based on data retrieved from 914 questionnaires. Results showed, that the perceived risk of becoming infected in a store causes an increase in arousal and, at the same time, a decrease in perceived pleasure during shopping. The rise in arousal led to an increase in consumers taking actions to decrease their risk of contagion, while an increase in noticeable pleasure lowered interest of following recommendations for pandemic behavior. The findings imply that through changes regarding in‐store atmosphere, stationary shops can provide consumers with a sense of urgency and awareness of infection risk so that they may do their shopping more efficiently.

How social media fosters the elders' COVID-19 preventive behaviors: perspectives of information value and perceived threat

“…Scholars indicated that perceived threat plays an important role in behavioral intentions toward health risk (Park and Lee, 2018) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) (Yoo et al, 2016). Besides, earlier studies investigated the importance of severity in social distancing (Szymkowiak et al, 2020), while others showed a significant impact of susceptibility on preventive behaviors in H1N1 (Yang, 2015) and HIV/AIDS (Zhang et al, 2014). In this study, perceived threat is assumed as a determinant of COVID-19 preventive behaviors.…”

Exploring customers' responses to online service failure and recovery strategies during Covid‐19 pandemic: An actor–network theory perspective

“…In our view, consumers' responses to online SFR differ under conditions of “mandatory domesticity and social distancing rules” when faced with threats such as the Covid‐19 crisis and they tend to rely on contextual rationality (Hennekam & Shymko, 2020 , p. 790). We argue that consumers' responses to service failure along with expected recovery may not be as sensitive to objective probabilistic values as they are to emotions (Gigerenzer, 2006 ; Szymkowiak et al, 2020 ).…”

“…A stream of researchers and media outlets have largely documented the impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic on consumer buying behavior, and have identified the social barriers that have an impact on their everyday life, particularly digital forces (Bacq et al, 2020 ; BBC, 2020a ; Beaunoyer et al, 2020 ; Blackburn et al, 2020 ; Seetharaman, 2020 ; Shah, 2020 ; Sheth, 2020 ). More specifically, researchers have demonstrated that the Covid‐19 pandemic is increasingly prompting consumers to undertake behavioral changes, such as shifting their consumption to online environments, under conditions of mandatory domesticity (Hennekam & Shymko, 2020 ; Sheth & Kellstadt, 2020 ; Szymkowiak et al, 2020 ). In recent months, online shopping has become the major focus in terms of consumer habits.…”

How COVID-19 affects individuals' food consumption behaviour: a consumer survey on attitudes and habits in Turkey

“…Governments around the world responded to this unprecedented event by imposing national lockdowns, home confinements, hygiene regimes and encouraging social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus (G ornicka et al, 2020;Sidor and Rzymski, 2020;Szymkowiak et al, 2020). Unlike the other emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), COVID-19 has had a huge impact not only on people's physiological and mental health but also on the global economy, the labour sector and people's daily routines (Cranfield, 2020;Galanakis, 2020;Gao et al, 2020;Kecinski et al, 2020;Loayza and Pennings, 2020).…”