NAME: ANYANWU MIRIAM CHIDINMA
MATRIC NO: 18/LAW01/041

HOW HAS THE COVID-19 AFFECTED CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR?
In November 2019, the world woke up to the news that a killer virus had been discovered Hubei Province of China. It was called Covid-19/ Coronavirus Disease. At first, it was nothing of a major concern as people doubted the easy human to human transmission. However, much to the dismay of the world, The World Health Organisation announced in early 2020, the human to human transmission of this disease. As the disease mutated, so its spread began to be felt worldwide. Countries started taking measures to curtail the widespread of the disease. From lockdowns, to quarantines, to isolations etc. Covid-19 as we know it, is a pandemic that has affected all aspects of human living. Economic aspects, Social aspects, Academic aspects and otherwise. In this study, we shall be paying attention to the effect of Covid-19 on the economic sector of the world particularly, the consumers.

DEFINITION OF COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease)
Covid-19 is a respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus now called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus is airborne and is transmitted through body contact with people and surfaces, and droplets from infected persons.
The World Health Organisation has described this disease as a pandemic due to its large geographical spread. It has been confirmed to be more fatal to a specific group of persons.

DEFINITION OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
A consumer is an individual who uses a product for the purpose of getting the satisfaction which the product has been designed to offer him.
A behaviour is a trait, feature of characteristic portrayed by a person, found to be consistent for a period of time in him.
Consumer behaviour is therefore the study of how consumers select, purchase, use and dispose goods and services to satisfy their 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 their behaviour.
Consumer Behaviour is defined by the American Marketing Association (AMA) as 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. 

EFFECTS
As expected, Covid-19 has taken a toll on every aspect of human existence but most noticeably, the social aspect with social distancing and its likes being put in place. Closely following the social aspect is the economic aspect. Countries’ economies are declining on a daily basis due to the halt in production, importation and exportation. This has affected mostly the consumers of these good and services. Following the announcement of this disease and the government’s lockdown law, a large scale of panic buying and selling was recorded. People did anything and everything they could to prevent this disease. This resulted in the high demand for goods such as face masks, alcohol based hand sanitizers, anti-bacterial soaps, hand towels, rubber gloves etc. as had been recommended by the World Health Organisation in collaboration with researching scientists. Producers had to produce at a higher and faster rate while the consumers ravaged these items. This goes to show that in the event of a need for a particular item, consumers’ demand for that item increases. 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 has also led to a shortage of health protective items like face masks, sanitisers. As a result, some countries such as Australia have inflated the prices of such items if a person intends on purchasing more than one. This was done to discourage hoarding of these items. Also, rendering of services of various kinds has been put on hold e.g the shutdown of all educational services- students are not able to acquire the knowledge which they have paid for although some schools have switched to e-learning as demanded by the students.

Furthermore, in countries such as Nigeria which have developing economies, the closure of all borders has taken a toll on consumers. The prices of goods were inflated as no goods were allowed through the borders into the country. After the announcement of the lockdown by the federal government, low income earners who survive on their daily wages, have been wailing due to the hunger that they foresee. This has resulted in the high rate of criminal activities such as armed robbery in places such as Lagos State just to ensure survival.

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. Due to 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.
In addition, according to Business Insider Intelligence and e-Marketer analysts in March 2020, 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.

With so many consumers entering restricted living situations, there has been a spike in other categories, especially in entertainment and media. That is not surprising given the fact that staying home increases the amount of content people see 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 quite the diametric 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.
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 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 to 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.
A consumer buying behaviour and choice is influenced and driven by many factors that surround him and his immediate environment. Now, the only issue on the lips of everyone is COVID-19, it is 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 tampered with thereby causing a decline in consumer behaviour. 
The pandemic has also affected marketers thereby affecting consumer behaviour. For example, the shortage of iPhones being experienced by Apple company as their primary manufacture had to shut down. Because of this shortage, consumers who wanted to get iPhones could not purchase it.

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 is an impact on their stores and e-commerce. However, it will be a while until we now if these changes in consumer behaviour will be long term.

REFERENCES 
▪	consumer behaviour textbook
▪	The Guardian Newspaper
▪	Https://www.contentserv.com/en/blog/how- covid-19-pandemic-is-influencing-consumer-behaviour/ accessed 7th April, 2020.