The Psychology of Consumer Decision Making: Understanding the Drivers and Influences
During the course of History consumer behaviour has been observed to be volatile specially during critical times, such as Covid-19 Pandemic. During the Covid-19 pandemic the lives of people changed in multiple ways. It changed the way we eat, work, shop, carry out business. The period of self-isolation, trapped inside their homes, reopening of the economies has certainly changed the way consumers behave. Many of the long-term change in consumer behaviour are still being discovered which is giving companies an opportunity to shape the Next New Normal.
Consumer behaviour can be influenced for a number of reasons
However, some elements have a greater impact on consumer behaviour in dramatic situations like a disease outbreak or a natural calamity than others. In fact, it has been demonstrated that major behavioural changes are an outcome of circumstances that have the ability to disrupt social life or endanger people’s health.
An illustration of this phenomena is panic buying, which happens when anxiety and fear cause people to make impulsive purchases. Panic buying is specifically described as a herd behaviour that happens when customers purchase a sizable number of goods before to, during, or after a crisis.
- It is evident from the graph that over the course of pandemic the consumers have inclined toward getting food and groceries items delivered at their home rather than going to the store to pick them up by themselves
- Around 20% opted for Online delivery while ordering Frozen Food and the 7% choose Store pickup which is a lot less if compared to previous data
- 17% people choose Perishable Groceries to get delivered at home and only 9%
choose store pickup.
Consumer Behavior changes during Covid-19
- The COVID-19 pandemic’s global expansion, according to a study by the Nielsen Company, caused a change in consumer spending levels and behaviour.
- In particular, a rising trend in the sales of necessities has been noted: consumer priorities have shifted to focus on the most fundamental requirements, such as food, hygiene, and cleaning supplies. Throughout the epidemic, consumer shopping habits have shifted in Italy.
- At first, when Italy was the first nation in Europe to experience COVID-19 spreading (between March and April 2020). Consumer behaviour tended to compulsively concentrate on buying necessities, especially those that were related to preventing the infection, such safety equipment and sanitising gel.
COVID-19 is changing how consumers behave across all spheres of life
Work
During the Covid-19 many people became unemployed due to lack of funds with the company as the economies were closed, with that remote working was promoted by the companies to reduce their cost even further, which eventually forced people to work from home
Shopping and consumption
As there was a complete lockdown, a sudden surge in the e-commerce was observed. People started buying products from online sources like Amazon, Flipkart and started ordering bigger baskets than before as online delivery takes time. This changed the behaviour of the consumer immensely as nearby shops were closed and this affected offline stores sales once the lockdown was uplifted.
Play and entertainment
Due to lockdown people shifted to alternate sources for entertainment and play, online subscription-based platforms like Netflix, Prime, YouTube saw a sudden rise in their salesas Cinemas/Theatres were closed people were forced to look for different resources.
Health and wellbeing
People started focusing more on health and demand for fitness related goods increased exponentially.
Travel and mobility
Due to Covid-19 there was a sudden decrease in international travels and an increase in regional/domestic travels.
Author: Kartik Barrot