Can Coronavirus Change Consumer Behavior in the Future?
The last time I step out of my studio everyday is to pick up my packages at the front desk after finishing my breakfast at 10am. I am not saying that my life is boring because I can’t go out at this time. I still have things to do. I chat with my friends and girlfriend through Instagram or WeChat, and comment on interesting …on Reddit. Classes are taught through Zoom, and all meetings become online.
Self-quarantine made me used to the life of staying at home all the time. I believe more people, similar to me, live their normal lives behind the screens. This made me think that if our lives have been changed, and if this is going to be a trend in the future.
News
“Data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a research institute that is part of the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, says that smartphone sales dropped 56% in February 2020 compared to data from 2019.”
The news article also mentioned that some industries, such as e-commerce, takeaway and mobile games are booming. Since more people choose to stay at home, express delivery has become their only choice. The traditional retail industry has been constantly transforming. It started with offline sales only, to simultaneous support of both online and offline, and now varied from multiple platforms. However, in the crisis of Coronavirus, it is a rapid transformation of consumers. We see that a large number of consumers are forced to make online purchases. People who might not accept this purchase method have become accustomed to this purchasing method, and they passively accepted this as a habit.
“During the holiday, a time with more concentrated buying activity, consumers spend more online creating a step-change, meaning the consumer may not return to past behavior. We may see this type of similar behavior unfold over the next few months.” — — Andrew Lipsman, principal analyst at eMarketer
Inertia has been a major factor in human behaviors. When we start to get used to one thing, we tend to stay unchanged with this thinking and processing mode. For example, for Millennials, trying on things at a physical store and ordering them from online has become a habit through the past years. So for this crisis at this time, I think it will also change people’s original purchasing habits.
Action in the market
I believe the impact of this virus on the tourism industry will be huge. Whether it is a nation’s travel restriction or people’s own choices, it will have a huge impact on the tourism industry. But I also think that after the epidemic, short-distance travel will become a trend. People are isolated at home for a long time, and they need to experience the outside world. On the contrary, the online economy will usher in spring. There will be a large increase in numbers such as Target’s service of picking up online orders and Amazon’s two-day delivery. At the moment when people are panicking, a brand with high-quality customer service and product lines will be more likely to build a positive brand image and a sense of trust with consumers. Online media platforms and TVs will be popular advertising channels to cover a larger group of audiences while people are forced to stay at home.
One more thought
In the near future, when virtual reality brings more to people’s lives than the actual reality, remote lives are not going to be a choice. As marketers, we need to be prepared for such a change in people’s living style.
