COVID-19 has disrupted online shopping behavior
The effect of COVID-19 global pandemic has changed the way we have been viewing the world so far.. It would be an understatement to say that this pandemic has disrupted all over lives, and led to the lockdown. 
The situation has seen rapid changes in recent times. Now we are familiar with words like lockdown, curfew, and pandemic. It has entered our daily life dictionary in a swift phase. With restaurants, bars, gyms, and movie theaters shutting down everywhere, we have seen a rise in the number of challenges daily workers face on a day-to-day basis. Many office professionals are facing the challenge of adjusting to work from home on a full-time basis. People have started realizing that “we are one” rather than different species. They have understood how hard it is to differentiate various species and realized that we all come under the same radar. We need to overturn and look at how people have approached their isolation period with uncertainty. One common thing we can note everywhere is their changed shopping behavior. People have started entering the routine of bulk-buying and online shopping. Everything has changed, in the world of e-commerce. We can see many people dumping whatever they can on their e-cart. With non-essential shops getting shut, people have started adapting and being flexible to strike a balance between their fluctuating needs. This blog aims at offering the best resources to cross these uncertain times.
Let’s get into the psychology of Panic Buying
When people started realizing how COVID-19 spreading has become a norm in the everyday news, how the World Health Organization declared it as a pandemic and how everybody was susceptible to the spreading of the disease, people started stocking everything up. They started buying everything from medical supplies such as masks and hand sanitizer along with essential household items such as bread and toilet paper. Every online and brick-and-mortar store went on to struggle with the unpredicted demand. Prices also started escalating. If we take a deeper psychological aspect, we can see that humans have the habit of responding to the crisis in various ways. When we face a risky situation where it is beyond our control, we would try whatever methods we can have to bring the situation under control. According to BBC, panic buying is the way our brain deals with fear and uncertainty over things we cannot control anymore. That’s when they try to take control of the situation by doing whatever they can. Factors such as loss aversion and herd mentality add fuel to the behavior. It has got a lot to do with acting like smart shopping experts and safeguarding yourself from the fear of the unknown future. With constant information feeding up their brains in social media and other news outlets, people tend to over-prepare rather than under-prepare. Changes in Revenue Across Ecommerce is inevitable. We should know that with COVID-19: Men’s and Women’s Shopping Behaviors Vary
Product Categories Shifting During COVID-19
When people are going to make purchase choices on the basis of new and ever-changing local and global situations, you need to be aware of their expectations. With this in mind, the product categories keep changing regularly. This market research company Neilsen is known for identifying six important customer behavior thresholds that are interconnected with the COVID-19 pandemic. Changes in Revenue Across Ecommerce go about the days when people are being choosy about the products they buy. It is going to be totally different altogether for men and women while we talk about their needs. These are a few vital points:
- Boosted up health-related buying where you purchase preclusive health and wellness products
- Quarantine preparation where you make sure to see shorter store visits
- Preparation for your pantry where you buy and stock up all your household items and groceries
- Restrictions insisted upon your living conditions where you make less shopping trips when you have an extremely limited online requirement
- Get back on your normal routine with alteration in the supply chain
When we go along with the trend, it is hard to note which items people would choose regularly. You need to set a standard for yourself when you are going about with the COVID-19 crisis. Hence you need to take active care to ensure that your product is on the right track. Get this happening with your team.
Shelf-stable goods
The next category where consumer packaged goods have started booming is the shelf-stable items. They fit along with the category where people plan for long-time quarantine. Nielsen says that shelf-stable milk, 
as well as milk substitutes such as oat milk, has increased above 300% in their dollar growth. Many other items such as dry fruits and snack items can also be included in the list. With Shelf-stable goods, you are going to build a consistent relief in your system that you have edible food for days to come. This might stand out well for people who wish to afford less for food since shelf-stable food items don’t cost any fortune. Anybody, from kids to elders, would be able to eat it any time. People should realize the vitality of shelf-stable goods since it can remain edible for many days to come. It has been an extremely self-sufficient day for people when they had to just rely upon the essentials. They are not buying anything else except for food. In such cases, it is good to rely upon the right team of supply chain individuals to buy whatever we need in terms of our necessities. Hence the e-commerce sector should ensure that they take a peek into all these factors by default.
Health and safety products
When people face empty shelves or see that the price of the product is going upwards, they would come to know that it is important to go about purchasing your health and safety products in a faster manner. This leads to a gap between the speed when the product gets purchased before producing and restocking it. Many items like medical masks and hygienic products like hand wash and toilet cleaners have gone above 300%.
Luxury goods
When you can see that the above-mentioned products and services are thriving, other industries such as luxury goods are not performing well. Since they rely deeply on the Asian market’s purchasing power, you can see that the pandemic would be affecting their consumers a lot. The e-commerce industry was widely dependent on this industry. It would now have to take a reshape to fit the current scenario.
Digital streaming
When people are locked up inside their house, they have to obviously give break to external environment options such as playing cricket, road trip, or swimming. Hence people would be interested to watch
more Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon series. Recently, the Netflix series “Pandemic” has taken everyone by storm. People are extremely interested to know more about this show. In this panic situation, not all people would be interested to binge-watch Big Bang Theory or Friends. Hence Netflix took it as an opportunity to showcase their mightiness through this show. Similarly, it is time for every business to adapt as per their customer mindset. When your customers might prefer to stay at home, it is time to entertain them with quality videos. Many apps like Zomato have their inbound streaming facilities. Hence digital streaming has been thriving nowadays. It is possible for any brand to make the best out of it. Brands can also live-stream their experience on digital platforms such as Instagram and LinkedIn. According to Forbes, COVID-19 has catapulted internet usage for up to 70%. When 4G and even 5G connections in some locations are available easily, we can only expect people to enjoy their time at home watching shows they deem fit according to their time.
Clothing stores
During these testing times, people would not prefer to buy clothes in person. Many department stores are closing their stores since they have been experiencing huge losses in 2020. Some have resorted to halt their online stores too.
What are the key takeaways?
With COVID-19: Men’s and Women’s Shopping Behaviors Vary. It is time we understand that and act accordingly. When your customers are trying to adapt themselves to the changing times, you need to deal with them sensitively with empathy. This is high time we start looking beyond our comfort zone and help them. When we support our customers, they stand by us forever.
Nurture the Art of Customer Support with Pattem Digital
We, at Pattem Digital, work towards our customer satisfaction, no matter what the hurdles are. We are with them forever.
We are going to join hands with the top teams to enhance our software web development services that would occupy a space in the history of containing dangerous pandemics. It has been a satisfying journey so far, while we took care of our customer’s requirements.
Let’s have a talk on how we can guide you through these tough times!
