| Description |
The pandemic altered the way of life permanently for people around the world, coining the phrase, "new normal," as we adjust to post-pandemic life. For my honors thesis, I chose to focus on consumer behavior changes associated with this "new normal." Specifically, I studied the impact of various forms of stress on the post-pandemic online shopping habits of college students. Habits built over the course of the pandemic are likely to continue based on recent consumer insights. This includes a massive shift in the proportion of e-commerce sales to brick-and-mortar sales. Analyses have shown that COVID has caused a greater use of mobile shopping. Even as foot traffic increases due to relaxed lockdown restrictions, retail e-commerce sales will continue to grow worldwide. This is especially true among younger age demographics. According to Shopify, consumers aged 18 to 34 have become the dominant e-commerce demographic (Newcastle, 2022). During quarantine periods in the pandemic, online shopping was the only means to buying many items required for daily living. Many major retailers thus focused their merchandising efforts on improving the online shopping experience with more convenient features: real-time tracking, faster shipping, and higher quality products. Not only did COVID-19 affect the proportion of online shopping, it was also a period of intense stress. Young college students are the future of shaping market conditions. According to UNICEF, 73% of young people between the ages of 13 and 29 have felt the need to ask for help concerning their physical and mental well-being since the start of the pandemic. Despite this, 40% did not ask for help. This research thus studied the impacts of these stresses on shopping behavior, specifically their online shopping habits, post-pandemic. I focused on 5 areas of stress that have been identified as impacting students during the pandemic: mental, physical, familial, interpersonal relationships and school/life balance. Then, I chose 4 online shopping categories that are relevant to students: online food shopping, online clothes shopping, entertainment and school supplies. I created a survey in Qualtrics that asked respondents about their online shopping habits pre-COVID- 19 and post-COVID-19 which allowed me to study the absolute post-purchase behavior as well as the change in purchase behavior. I also asked about each respondent's COVID experience to study the interaction effect between shopping habits and stress factors. The survey was distributed to second year business students who voluntarily participated for out of class participation (OOCP) credit. The results of this research found a set of somewhat complex relationships. Different types of purchases were influenced by different stress factors and the more a respondent was personally affected by COVID-19, the more they purchased in some online categories, but not all. The thesis closes with overall conclusions about online shopping behavior and stress and what I learned both about doing research and myself throughout the process. |
