The evolution of shopping behaviour during the pandemic

The pandemic and its effects have involved the countries all over the world and have changed many aspects of our daily life. One of this aspects is how we buy both goods and services. 

In recent months there has been a global increase in e-commerce and consequently in online purchases. In the United States, this increase happened even before the spread of the virus, but when Covid19 began to spread quickly in March, there was a boom in e-commerce. 

From 12 July to 18 August 2020 a survey was carried out and the responses of 12,000 consumers in 27 different countries were evaluated. Statistics have shown how much and how consumer behaviour for what concerns shopping has changed in recent months. 

Let’s consider the most interesting data: the survey shows that 63% of consumers have changed their way they buy goods and services compared to the previous year. On the other hand, 57% changed the way they communicate with the companies; in 2020, 60% of people interacted online with companies, while 40% interacted offline, different data compared to the previous year when 42% preferred internet communication, while 68% preferred offline communication. 58% are inclined to make more online purchases after the pandemic. All this has also led to a change in the relationship between people and the technological world, indeed 60% of consumers say that their relationship with technology has evolved. 
In the end, 71% gives much more importance to the ethics of the company and 90% says that the way a company acts during a crisis shows the reliability of itself. 

On October 13th and 14th there was the Amazon Prime Day which was a success as expected. Sales surpassed sales of the previous year by 45%, and shipments increased by 8.5% compared to the previous week’s shipments. 

Carson Krieg, co-founder and director of strategic partnerships at Convey, said: “with the pandemic still lingering across the U.S., people are still buying more online, whether for the safety it provides or due to shuttered stores. A new generation of consumers have learned to buy online this year and are shifting their buying behaviour”. 

This survey showed us that the evolution of shopping behaviour depends on the evolution of the pandemic, so in the coming months how will the situation evolve?