Pollák, F.; Markovič, P.; Vavrek, R.; Konečný, M. Return to the New Normal: Empirical Analysis of Changes in E-Consumer Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Behav. Sci. 2022, 12, 85. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs12030085
Pollák, F.; Markovič, P.; Vavrek, R.; Konečný, M. Return to the New Normal: Empirical Analysis of Changes in E-Consumer Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Behav. Sci. 2022, 12, 85. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs12030085
Pollák, F.; Markovič, P.; Vavrek, R.; Konečný, M. Return to the New Normal: Empirical Analysis of Changes in E-Consumer Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Behav. Sci. 2022, 12, 85. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs12030085
Pollák, F.; Markovič, P.; Vavrek, R.; Konečný, M. Return to the New Normal: Empirical Analysis of Changes in E-Consumer Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Behav. Sci. 2022, 12, 85. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs12030085
Abstract
The global pandemic caused by the new coronavirus has largely changed established business practices. The aim of the study is to present the results of eighteen-month intensive research into the effects of the pandemic on e-consumer behavior. In one of the most active e-commerce markets in Europe, the Czech Republic, we analyzed a sample of more than one and a half million Facebook users in terms of their C2B interactions on the B2C activities of the five major e-commerce market players. The measurements were carried out in three periods, which corresponded to the onset of the first wave, peak, and fading of the second wave of the pandemic. This enabled us to monitor the effect of seasonality and the stabilization of patterns of consumer behavior during the coronavirus crisis. The results suggest that a specific panic pattern of e-consumer behavior was developed at the time of the onset of the pandemic. However, as the pandemic progressed, the market has adapted to a new normal, which, as evidenced by the change in trends, appears to be a combination of the pre-pandemic and pandemic behavioral patterns. Using a statistical analysis, it was possible to identify delta of changes within the patterns of consumer behavior, thus fulfilling the final condition for creating an empirical model of the COVID-19 pandemic impacts on e-consumer behavior presented in this study.
Keywords
e-commerce; m-commerce; innovation; business management; COVID-19; Czech Republic; Facebook
Subject
Business, Economics and Management, Marketing
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
