Author: Microsoft

NAME: EFULU GENEVIEVE CHIDERA
MATRIC NO: 18/LAW01/083
LEVEL: 200
COURSE: CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

TOPIC: HOW HAS THE COVID-19 AFFECTED CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

INTRODUCTION
As much as a consumer would want to purchase an item or get the service of a worker, he would not, if it would be detrimental to him. Coronavirus is shaking up businesses and consumer behaviour in a massive scale . Both the public and private sector are scrambling to slow the spread of the illness and contain the Covid-19 infections. The writer of this paper would be writing on how the Covid-19 has affected consumer behaviour.

WHAT IS CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR?
Firstly, a consumer is a person who uses a product for his own use in order to get the satisfaction which the product can offer to him.
Consumer behaviour  is the study of how consumers select, purchase, use and dispose of goods and services to satisfy personal needs, household needs or industrial needs.
It is those acts of individuals and organisations directly involved in obtaining and using economics goods and services, including the decision processes that follows and determines the acts.
It is defined by the American Marketing Association (AMA) ad the dynamic inter-function of effects and cognition, behaviour and the environment by which beings conduct the exchange aspect of their lives i.e consumer behaviour is also the thought and feelings of people's experience and the action they exhibit, perform during the process of consumption. 

WHAT IS COVID-19 (coronavirus Disease)
Covid-19 is an illness caused by a novel coronavirus now called  Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus is airborne, it is transmitted through body contacts with people and surfaces, and through droplets.
The disease is described by the World Health Organisation as a pandemic because of its geographical spread. This disease has a higher death rate than survival rate.

EFFECTS
Covid-19 has taken a toll on consumer behaviour, there's been a decline in the demand for goods by consumers as everyone is taking precautionary measures against the disease. It has led to a shortage in distribution of products round the world, products are only available in limited amount because some countries if not all have shut its  borders to curtail the spread of this disease; so in a country(ies) that thrives  on importation, the goods will be limited. A shortage in goods will lead to an inflation in prices thereby discouraging consumers from buying in bulk. Also , due to shortage in products, consumers do not have options or alternative making it difficult for them to be satisfied with their products.
Also, rendering of services of various kinds has been put on hold e.g the shutdown of all educational services in Nigeria- students are not able to acquire the knowledge which they have paid for although some schools are engaging in online school. This still brings us back to the fact that a consumer is supposed to decide on what mode of consumption is best for him i.e a person may not like the idea of online schooling but his options are now limited because of this novel virus.
Consumers also engage in panic buying so that they have enough of everything they need to survive so they don't need to come in contact with people or be somewhere rowdy. This also led to a shortage of health protective items like face masks, sanitisers. Because of this in some countries like Australia the prices of such items were inflated if a person was buying more than one. This was done to discourage hoarding of these items.

There are two factors that influence consumer behaviour which are: (a) consumer own thinking, feelings and desire for the product and (b) environmental factors such as social influences. Now because of the presence of this disease no one really has the desire to purchase any item because of the uncertainty of where it is coming from and who has touched it, everyone is doing their best to stay safe. Also, because of the perception on how deadly and how easily transmittable the disease is no one is really or selling anything.

As concern regarding Coronavirus grows, impact on consumer behaviour begins to slow in many regards. The traffic in restaurants have gone down significantly, consumers are also reported eating at home more than they did before reports of the outbreak in the US, and were using delivery meal services, aggregators and mobile ordering-ahead services less often. Some consumers still making occasional take-out or delivery orders to supplement their in-home eating. Not surprisingly, it has been observed that consumers made their decision to travel less by plane to anywhere, but particularly overseas. While the type of goods people need might change due to their circumstances, the need to purchase these somewhere will remain, and we will likely see a general switch to online shopping.

In countries heavily impacted by COVID-19, the decision making of the consumers are geared towards stockpiling food and other essential items, while isolating themselves from crowds. To find out how and when consumers started showing these behavioural changes, Nielsen conducted shopper behaviour research that started during the beginning of the pandemic in China and extended to other countries that have also been affected. They monitored consumer trends, as COVID-19 news reached the general public and found out that consumers go through six behavioural stages based on their awareness of the COVID-19 spread in their communities: 
a	Proactive health-minded buying: Increased interest in the acquisition of products that maintain well-being or health
b	Reactive health management: prioritisation of products for infection containment (e.g. face masks)
c	Pantry preparation: higher purchases of shelf-safe products and increased store visits
d	Quarantined living preparation: increased online shopping, decreased store visits and first signs of strains on the supply chain
e	Restricted living: possible price gouging due to limited supplies and deterred online fulfilment
f	Living a new normal: increased health awareness even as people return their typical daily activities. 

However, due to the pandemic, older generations are starting to see online shopping as a valid and safe option to obtain groceries. For example, Alibaba reported that in China, online grocery orders placed by people born in 1960s were four times higher than normal during the Spring Festival or the period where China was still discovering new cases of COVID-19 each day.
The same picture is painted by Business Insider Intelligence and eMarketer analysts in March 2020, which suggests that e-commerce  is likely to grow as consumers avoid physical stores. Their data suggests that 74.6% of US internet users said they would be likely to avoid shopping centres  and malls if the coronavirus  outbreak in the country worsens , and over half would avoid shops in general.
These metrics varied between shoppers who made in-store purchases versus those who made online purchases in the past week. Of note, online shoppers are feeling the impact of shortages slightly more than in store shoppers.
But what about other product categories?
With so many consumers entering restricted living situations, there has been a spike in other categories, especially in entertainment and media. That's not surprising given that staying home increases the amount of content people watch by 60%. Video games and video-game internet traffic have seen a 75% increase since restrictions were imposed in the US. Of course, not everyone is seeing increase in traffic or purchases, in fact travel sites are experiencing  the opposite.
So, do these changes signal a shift into how consumers will behave in the long term? If the holidays are any indicator, even short- term adjustments in behaviour can have long term effects. For example, during the holidays, there are more consumers purchasing online or on their mobile devices. We then see this behaviour being sustained as new holiday seasons roll in, which means new habits have been established.
Despite the rise in e-commerce activities due to the pandemic, most retailers have a bleak outlook for the rest of the year. This is because e-commerce typically represents only about 16% of their sales revenue. With many stores shutting their doors, it is in the best interest of business to maintain and grow their e-commerce strategy.

Buyers pass through many circumstances, and factors before deciding on what to buy, where to buy and of what dimension and quantity to buy. This disturbs their attention and choices in decision making. A consumer buying behaviour and choice is influenced and driven by many factors that surround him and his immediate environment. For example opinion leaders, media and internet, personal or psychological influences, etc.
Now the only issue on the lips of everyone is COVID-19, it is like the only topic on every news station and on social media- preventions, survival rate, death rate, possible vaccine and what not. This would create tension in the minds of consumers making them vulnerable and afraid to purchase anything, thus their psychological state is being tempered with thereby causing a decline in consumer behaviour. 
Also, consumers notice that their best brand influencers are not really advertising anything also their favourite celebrity has been lowkey has not posted anything they purchased recently; all these behaviours would make consumers feel like, "oh, since my best singer (Tiwa savage for example) has not bought anything, I won't buy anything". Opinion leaders play quite a role in a consumer buying behaviour.

The pandemic has also affected marketers thereby affecting consumer behaviour. For example, Apple experienced shortages on its iPhone supply because of the company's primary manufacturer, Foxconn, shutting down its production in China. Because of this shortage, consumers who wanted to get iPhones could not purchase it.

As the population of most countries start to move from quarantine preparations to restricted living, online fulfilment will be challenging due to strains in the supply chain. This has prompted many customers to turn to Direct to Consumer (D2C) manufacturers to order and receive goods within a normal timeframe.
These D2C manufacturers are a growing segment that caters directly to consumers by bypassing standard distribution channels, effectively gaining direct access to customers. Several of these manufacturers have seen a significant boost in sales due to the pandemic. For example, Peach, a brand that manufactures high-end  bath tissue saw new customers increase by 279%over the last two weeks compared to the two weeks prior.
Awareness of D2C manufacturers has increased in the last few years, with almost 48% of manufacturers racing to build D2C channels, and and 87% seeing these channels being relevant to their products and consumers. Initially boosted by younger audiences, D2C manufacturers have found success by focusing on specific target audiences and catering t their needs and identities. This D2C trend is expected to continue, and perhaps accelerate, as manufacturers are still on the fence might finally see the benefits of D2C and might finally see the benefits of D2C and make themselves directly available to consumers.
However, even D2C manufactures that have found themselves positively  impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic will be affected by supply chain issues as consumers stop living in quarantine. This means they can't afford to stand idly by and must find a way to maintain their e-commerce growth once the pandemic is over as well.

CONCLUSION
It's still too early to tell how much consumer behaviour will change due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A stance will be made when additional countries move through the different stages and into restrictive living and there's an impact on their stores and e-commerce. However, it will be a while until e now if these changes in consumer behaviour will be long term.
In the meantime, retailers and D2C manufacturers should strive maintain higher levels of e-commerce sales to mitigate  the impact of store closures.

REFERENCES
▪	<https://www.contentserv.com/en/blog/how-covid-19-pandemic-is-influencing-consumer-behaviour>accessed 7th April, 2020.
▪	Achugo Eusebius and Folayan Opeoluwa Florence, Consumer Behaviour: A business science approach (Connel Publications 2019)
▪	<https://www.clickz.com/key-insights-effect-of-covid-19-on-consumer-behaviour-the-worlds-more-video-content-savvy-and-apple-shakers-up-ar/261203>accessed 7th April, 2020
▪	<https://www.ayima.com/blog/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-user-behaviour-and-ecommerce.html>accessed 7th April,2020