September 5, 2023
Did COVID-19 trigger the behavior change of online shopping? We were seeing an increase in netizens who tend to use mobile payment and shop online this February, and some changes in this trend are found after half of a year. People increasingly purchase food during the period of Level 3 epidemic alert, and the additional sold laptops and computers are bought for working from home and learning from home.
Pandemic has changed consumer's behavior and expectation, and it has shaped the new normal in business models. The survey in February revealed that 33.6% of participants shopped online once to twice per month and 25.3% of participants did three to four times monthly. The survey result also pointed out that mobile payment became the majority of payment approaches, and most people liked to add their credit cards to their digital wallets. Is there any difference in purchase behavior after they experienced level 3 epidemic alert?
The latest survey report shows that quarantine leads to a growth in the frequency of online purchasing. Indeed, 62.2% of participants claimed that they purchased on the internet with increasing frequency, and most of them were in the age group of 30-39 and 40-49.
Furthermore, the consumers consider price, delivery fee, and discount as the most important factors when they make their online shopping decision.
In terms of commodities, the demand for most products is reduced, but growth is found in food commodities during the period of level 3 epidemic alert. The purchase of clothes & accessories and purses were impacted by quarantine with 14% and 11.4% decreasing separately. Nevertheless, food, beverage, and meal coupons grew slightly with 1.6% in total from February to August.
It was found that 56.8% of participants bought food online, and up to 36.3% of the netizens began to buy food on the internet under the level 3 epidemic alert. The Top 3 popular foods are prepared meals, frozen food, and frozen meat. Furthermore, prepared and frozen food is opinion leaders' favorite. On the future outlook, those high-value customers may lead a market growth when Covid-19 ebbing. Obviously, food eCommerce has extended its potential market under the pandemic, but the revenue of the traditional foodservice industry has fallen rapidly.
From the aspect of work from home and e-learning, it drives growth in the customers’ demand for appliances. According to the survey result, the rank of appliances demand is led by desktop and laptop and followed by smartphone, air-conditioner, and electric fan. The top 3 of the appliances are usually paid by men, and the kitchen appliances which are ranked 4 in appliances demand ranking are bought by females in the majority.
How do people pay for the aforementioned? We find two similar payment behaviors in both February and August: people like to use mobile payment, and most consumers add credit cards to their e-wallet. In addition, most participants adopt LINE as their mobile payment provider, and the second and third popular providers are PX pay and Jkopay.
According to other worldwide research, people will continue to shop online after quarantine because of convenience. Despite people considering budget affecting their decision making, they always keep paying for convenience which is ranked 4 of the factors influencing online shopping behavior. First of all, e-Commerce delivers everything, and they allow people to try, fit in, and buy commodities without leaving home under the pandemic. When customers are used to convenience and comfort, they are going to expect it as a normal shopping experience. Second, AR and VR technology are adopted by more e-Commerce to facilitate immersive shopping experiences. Third, Instagram and Facebook provide shopping platforms now, so you cannot avoid the temptation to shop that is lurking in your online social activities. Can you really resist shopping online when social media and e-commerce become an alliance?
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