How Did The Pandemic Affect Market Shopping Habits, Are Consumers Used To Shop Online?
Coronavirus limitations and hygiene concerns were also reflected in shopping habits. Instead of going to the grocery store, consumers turned to online shopping methods, used some applications for the first time, and preferred cards over cash. Contactless delivery and contactless payment have become keywords for brands.
In this article, we will try to answer the question “How has online shopping shaped during the pandemic?”
According to The Interbank Card Center’s statement, 2.5 million cards were introduced to contactless payment for the first time in March and 3 million cards made online shopping for the first time.
Although online shoppers are in a generation that is densely intertwined with technology, there are also users who shop through their neighbors or relatives and are included in their shopping baskets.
Users who made joint shoppers with their neighbors were able to complete their online shopping without having any problems in taking advantage of delivery fees and campaigns while spending the minimum amount.
In online shopping, we see that product concern focuses on the freshness of fruits and vegetables. Although consumers manage this anxiety by planning their shopping, it becomes a barrier for the middle-upper age group who are used to choosing their fruit and vegetable. Another barrier for the middle-upper age group is the shopping habits; by visiting 3-5 markets for shopping, consumers who buy different product groups feel unhappy about shopping from a single online store.
The middle-aged consumers who can get support from their children give the responsibility to their children and expect them to shop online or choose their vegetables. However, in general, the middle-upper age group has questions and concerns such as “Who will choose my food?” and “What will happen if I do not like the products, if the wrong order comes?”.
Restrictions Encourage New Shopping Tactics
Online shopping brought new habits to the consumer, and consumers who were not used to preparing a pre-shopping necessity list started to prepare lists because they had to plan their shopping.
From these changes, it becomes possible to say that consumers are developing tactical plans for restrictions.
E-commerce companies, which evaluated the changes and expectations in the consumer during the pandemic process, were on the winning side in the process. E-commerce sites that work on many different issues from delivery options to cyber security and meet the expectations of shoppers have carried out their operations at a very intense pace. Shopping sites focusing on television ads aimed to increase their awareness and number of users. Parallel to this, they developed their service range to expand their target markets.
In the changing shopping trends, physical stores that could not be digitized were damaged and they tried to digitalize with fast steps to catch the consumers in the online world. Brands that already completed the digitization steps; established their digital markets created employment and developed live support systems to respond to the density.
If your store and your brand need guidance in the digitization steps, you can contact us.
Dwt Mandalina / Ayşegül Baysal / Digital Strategist
