Impact of pandemic on consumer behaviour towards essentials

Abstract

After embracing the COVID-19 pandemic for more than a year, the world and India are slowly both moving towards recovery. Lockdown 1.0 imposed certain restrictions on E-Commerce firms which forced consumers to depend on local mom and pop stores for their daily needs. Lockdown 2.0 however gave e-commerce firms a new life by permitting those to deliver goods classified as essentials (p. 1). With customers having intentions of minimizing touchpoints and avoiding stepping out of their homes as much as possible, they choose online channels to shop for essentials. This transition was helped by Indian consumers’ comfort with digital payments which started back in 2017 post demonetization was implemented. As per our findings the Net Promoter Score for purchasing groceries online was 33% with detailed breakup being 50% respondents being promoters, 33% respondents being passive and the remaining 17% were detractors. 40% of our respondents preferred online channels for purchasing essentials, while the second most preferred sales channel was hypermarkets/ supermarkets. Amongst the people who prefer online sales channel, 47% of those bought essentials online for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. People who don’t prefer online channels for purchasing groceries cited touch and feel and trustworthiness as the top two factors for the same. In the post-pandemic era, people value consumer convenience, discount and offers and availability of digital payment options the most while choosing sales channel for purchasing groceries. The importance casas safety and hygiene as perceived by customers has increased in the post-pandemic era compared to the pre-pandemic era. Following the same lines, the most important parameters valued by customers while opting for delivery of essentials are vaccination status of delivery agents and delivery agents following proper safety protocols like wearing masks regularly. Current players in the market should focus efforts on social media marketing by leveraging ads on Instagram, Facebook, and influencers on Instagram for enhancing their reach. A testament to this fact is that 40% of our respondents had first heard of their sellers via social media. Sellers should also look to enhance trust with their customers as consumers value trust more than ever in the post pandemic era. 35% of our respondents rely on referrals from family and friends for knowing about tried and tested sellers for fulfilling their daily needs. Consumers have also been buying more from Private Labels compared to the pre-pandemic era due to enhanced visibility of private labels due to boost of online retailers.