Editing Consumer behaviour (section)

=== Influences on consumer purchasing behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic ===

Evidence shows that certain consumer purchasing behaviours rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic<ref>{{cite web | url=https://cxm.co.uk/cxm-resource/covid-19-consumer-behaviour-research/| title=COVID 19 Consumer Behaviour Research| website=cxm.co.uk| language=en| access-date=2020-02-10}}</ref> as result of external and internal factors. Namely, behaviours such as compulsive buying, impulsive buying, [[panic buying]], and revenge buying – where panic buying and revenge buying were most noticeable – proved as a coping strategy for alleviating consumers' negative responses to the pandemic.<ref name="Samuel Lins">Samuel Lins, Sibele Aquino, Ana Raquel Costa (14 March 2021) 'From panic to revenge: Compensatory buying behaviours during the pandemic', International Journal of Psychiatry.</ref>

Panic buying occurs when consumers purchase more things than usual as a consequence of adverse feelings of fear, anxiety and uncertainty surrounding a crisis or disruptive event.<ref>Cambridge Dictionary, Cambridge University Press (2020), accessed 23 April 2021 from: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/panic-buying.</ref> Such purchases tend to be excessive in relation to the perceived threat.<ref name="Steven Taylor">Steven Taylor (March 2021) 'Understanding and managing pandemic-related panic buying' Journal of Anxiety Disorders 78.</ref> During the pandemic, panic buying of necessities, such as food and hygiene products, increased across the globe.<ref name="Samuel Lins" /> Consider, in particular, that Australia faced an unprecedented spike in toilet paper sales, prompting comments from its Prime Minister.<ref>ABC News Video Services (26 June 2020) 'VIDEO: Prime Minister Scott Morrison says there is no need for panic buying' ABC News, accessed 23 April 2021 from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-26/prime-minister-scott-morrison-says-no-need-for-panic-buying/12398700; Zona Black (3 June 2020) 'Panic buying: Australians top global charts for toilet paper stockpiling' The New Daily, accessed 23 April 2021 from: https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/consumer/2020/06/03/panic-buy-australia-why/; BBC News Services (26 June 2020) 'Australia caps toilet rolls sales after panic-buying' BBC News, accessed 23 April 2021 from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53196525.</ref> Panic buying – in response to an irrational fear of scarcity of products and heightened urgency to procure coveted items – provided a sense of control for consumers during the pandemic, notwithstanding a loss of control to the social, professional and health environments around them.<ref name="Steven Taylor" />

In addition to panic buying throughout the pandemic, revenge buying was apparent during periods when non-essential stores reopened after COVID-19-related lockdowns.<ref name="Samuel Lins" /> Revenge buying was specifically observed in physical luxury retail stores.<ref name="Samuel Lins" /> For example, it was reported that an Hermes store in Guangzhou, China, made US$2.7 million in the first day it opened after lockdown, where consumers' purchases ranged from leather goods, scarves and homewares to a diamond-studded Birkin bag, among other things.<ref>Tianwei Zhang (13 April 2020) 'Hermes hauled in $2.7 million in one China store on Saturday: sources' Women's Wear Daily, accessed on 23 April 2021 from: https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/hermes-hauled-in-2-7-million-in-one-china-store-on-saturday-sources-1203559738/. See also: Shalini Nagarajan (16 April 2020) 'French luxury brand Hermes pulls in US$2.7 million in a day at a flagship store in China as wealthy shoppers splurge after the coronavirus lockdown' Business Insider Australia, accessed on 23 April 2021 from: https://www.businessinsider.com/wealthy-chinese-shoppers-slurge-at-hermes-store-in-china-2020-4?r=US&IR=T; Robert Williams, Jinshan Hong (12 March 2020) 'Revenge spending spurs Chinese luxury rebound from virus' Bloomberg, accessed on 23 April 2021 from: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-12/luxury-shoppers-in-china-emerge-from-quarantine-to-buy-again.</ref>

The purchase of luxury products – where 'luxury' is defined as high quality, expensive and non-necessary<ref>Caroline Tynan, Sally McKechnie, Celine Chhuon (1 August 2009) 'Co-creating value for luxury brands' Journal of Business and Research 63 (2010) 1156 - 1163.</ref> – is associated with positive emotions, often to compensate for negative feelings.<ref>Sonny Nwankwo, Nicolas Hamelin, Meryem Khaled (5 May 2014) Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21 (2004) 735 - 744.</ref> Namely, revenge buying of luxury products provided an emotional release and a sense of belonging, esteem, and self-actualisation during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which people were frustrated and psychologically discomforted.<ref>Jun-Hwa-Cheah, David Waller, Park Thaichon, Hiram Ting, Xin-Jean Lim 'Price image and the Sugrophobia effect on luxury retail purchase intention' (5 June 2020) Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 57 (2020) 102188.</ref> Such purchases can be said to have achieved sensory gratification as well as problem avoidance for consumers.<ref name="Samuel Lins" />

It is clear that consumers sought to obtain internal happiness through consumption as a response to external health crises and social distancing measures.<ref>Selin Atalay, Margaret Meloy (2 May 2011) 'Retail therapy: a strategic effort to improve mood' Psychology and Marketing 28(6), 638 - 660.</ref> Both panic buying and revenge buying were compensatory in nature and therapeutic in nature – an attempt for consumers to control an external situation that was out of their internal control, as well as provide comfort, security, and improvement of well-being.<ref name="Samuel Lins" />

Due to the environmental trends, people begin to shop online more to avoid physical stores and stay contactless. Customers will spend more on sportswear than on professional dressing in 2020, and technology products related to teleworking, such as Zoom, also have more consumers than before.<ref name="doi.org">{{Cite journal |last1=Kannan |first1=P.K. |last2=Kulkarni |first2=Gauri |date=2021-01-01 |title=The impact of Covid-19 on customer journeys: implications for interactive marketing |journal=Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=22–36 |doi=10.1108/JRIM-03-2021-0078 |s2cid=239635412 |issn=2040-7122}}</ref>

Besides, studies have suggested that after the pandemic, people's awareness of environmental hazards and society's responsibility to save the planet increased, so societies changed their shopping behavior during the pandemic. People will choose sustainable products even though they cost more. In addition, stores and brands can adopt sustainable marketing to build a new brand image to attract customers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Timotius |first1=Elkana |last2=Octavius |first2=Gilbert Sterling |date=2021 |title=Global Changing of Consumer Behavior to Retail Distribution due to Pandemic of COVID-19: A Systematic Review |url=http://koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO202131659492624.page |journal=Journal of Distribution Science |volume=19 |issue=11 |pages=69–80 |doi=10.15722/jds.19.11.202111.69 |issn=1738-3110}}</ref>

Kannan and Kulkarni also illustrate some phenomena led by the channel migration caused by COVID-19. The first phenomenon is that customers are more open-minded to trying new brands and products because of the limitation of online channels of certain brands; the second phenomenon is that the long time pandemic restrictions make customers who use online channels as substitutes for their offline purchases initially now those customers have learned how to effectively use online channels for their daily lives.<ref name="doi.org"/>