Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to research differences that start to change consumer behavior in the digital era since the advent of COVID 19. The events associated with the pandemic that led to increased social distance and complete lockdown undoubtedly affect not only the economic situation territories and countries in general, but also on the behavior of each individual. The situation that has arisen has forced more and more consumers to meet their needs with the help of digital tools, and this process has some special characteristics. The article shows the results of analytical and comparative analysis of the changes in consumer behavior in the digital space since the onset of the pandemic. It was researched trends change consumer demand in the study categories via Google Trends. The practical study was conducted on the basis of the analysis of changes in consumer behavior and their preferences in the direction of recreation and tourism, where the data of a sociological survey of Azerbaijani citizens to study the potential impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry was used. The survey was conducted on April 13-21, 2020 by a team of researchers from the University of Northampton (UK), the National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, University of National and World Economy (Bulgaria). According to the results of the study, conclusions were drawn that give new challenges to the development of marketing in the digital environment, namely: digital tools have had rapid unpredictable development since the COVID-19 pandemic, and remain as high level in demand after easing restrictive measures; entrepreneurship was not ready for such quick transformation; after the first interactions in digital space, the consumer has a stable experience of interaction with specific brands, but they disappoint the expectations of consumers in a personalized contact. Based on the conclusions, an algorithm for building relationships with consumers and increasing their level of loyalty in the digital environment is proposed. The results of this study could be used in the implementation of marketing goals of representatives of different levels of business structures, governments.

Keywords: consumer behavior, COVID-19 impact, digital environment, tourism in Azerbaijan, consumer individual changes.

JEL Classification: G14, L83, O13.

Cite as: Rahmanov. F., Mursalov. M., & Rosokhata, A. (2021). Consumer behavior in digital era: impact of COVID 19. Marketing and Management of Innovations, 2, 243-251. https://doi.org/10.21272/mmi.2021.2-20

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

References

1. Armano, D. (2020). COVID-19 will be remembered as the «Great Accelerator» of digital transformation. Forbes. Retrieved from [Link]
2. Bai, Y., Yao, L., Wei, T., Tian, F., Jin, D. Y., Chen, L., & Wang, M. (2020). Presumed Asymptomatic Carrier Transmission of COVID-19. JAMA-Journal of the American Medical Association, 323(14). [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
3. Bilan, Y., Chudy-Laskowska, K., Szczygieł, E., & Piecuch, T. (2021). People’s Behavior, in the Context of Living Standards Changes and Sustainable Development, Exemplified by the Carpathian Euroregion. Acta Polytechnica Hungarica, 18(2). [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
4. Biswal, B., Ashish, D., Guo, j., Bui, J., & Lau, S. (2020). Going digital: insights to optimise online insurance in Asia. Swiss Re Institute. Retrieved from [Link]
5. Carnevale, J. B., & Hatak, I. (2020). Employee adjustment and well-being in the era of COVID-19: Implications for human resource management. Journal of Business Research, 116, 183-187. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
6. Chen, Z. L., Zhang, Q., Lu, Y., Guo, Z. M., Zhang, X., Zhang, W. J., … & Lu, J. H. (2020). Distribution of the COVID-19 epidemic and correlation with population emigration from Wuhan, China. Chinese Medical Journal, 133(9). [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
7. Donthu, N., & Gustafsson, A. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 on business and research. Journal of business research, 117, 284. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
8. Dutta, P., Dutta, U., Hasan, S., Sarkar, S., & Sana, T. (2020). Educate, Empower And Protect People Through Timely Authentic Information: Explore How Bangladeshi Newspapers Response To COVID-19 Pandemic. SocioEconomic Challenges, 4(3), 94-104. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
9. Farseev, A., Chu-Farseeva, Y. Y., Qi, Y., & Loo, D. B. (2020). Understanding economic and health factors impacting the spread of COVID-19 disease. medRxiv. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
10. Gritsayenko, I. (2020). How the COVID-19 epidemic affected the behavior of the Internet audience. European Business Association. SODA Creative & Digital. Retrieved from [Link]
11. Heubl, B. (2020).Covid-19 cycling infrastructure building spree overlooks safety needs. E&T. Retrieved from [Link]
12. Ji, Y., Ma, Z., Peppelenbosch, M. P., & Pan, Q. (2020). Potential association between COVID-19 mortality and health-care resource availability. The Lancet Global Health, 8(4), e480. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
13. Kemp, S. (2021). DigitaL 2021: global overview report. Retrieved from [Link]
14. Kuzmenko, O., Vasylieva, T., Vojtovič, S., Chygryn, O., & Snieška, V. (2020). Why do regions differ in vulnerability to сovid-19? Spatial nonlinear modeling of social and economic patterns. Economics & Sociology, 13(4), 318-340. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
15. Kwilinski, A., Vyshnevskyi, O., & Dzwigol, H. (2020). Digitalization of the EU Economies and People at Risk of Poverty or Social Exclusion. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 13(7), 142. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
16. Perez, S. (2020). Grocery delivery apps see record downloads amid coronavirus outbreak, TechCrunch. Retrieved from [Link]
17. Rahmanov, F., Aliyeva, R., Rosokhata, A. S., & Letunovska, N. Y. (2020). Tourism management in Azerbaijan under sustainable development: impact of COVID-19. Marketing and Management of Innovations, 3, 195-207. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
18. Rosokhata, A. S., Rybina, O. I., Derykolenko, A. O., & Makerska, V. (2020). Improving the Classification of Digital Marketing Tools for the Industrial Goods Promotion in the Globalization Context. Research in World Economy, 11 (4), 42-52. [Google Scholar]
19. Rosokhata, A., & Sager, L. (2020). Individual issues of economic security: the study of the impact of changes in migration processes on countries economic and innovative development. Visnyk of Sumy State University. Economics series, 1, 62-74. Retrieved from [Link]
20. Rudenko, L. A., Smiianov, V. A., & Smiianova, O. I. (2020). Basic principles of behavioral economics and prospects for their application in the public health system. Wiadomosci Lekarskie, 73(9), 2026-2030. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
21. Saher, L., Stoyanets, N., & Butrym, O. (2020, April). Impact Of Highly Qualified Personnels Migration On Economic And Innovative Development. In 35th IBIMA Conference (pp. 1-2). Retrieved from [Link]
22. Sheth, J. (2020). Impact of Covid-19 on consumer behavior: Will the old habits return or die?. Journal of Business Research, 117, 280-283. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
23. Theodoridis, P. K., & Kavoura, A. (2021, March). The Impact of COVID-19 on Consumer Behaviour: The Case of Greece. In Strategic Innovative Marketing and Tourism in the COVID-19 Era: 9th ICSIMAT Conference 2020 (pp. 11-18). Springer International Publishing. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
24. Us, Y. O., Pimonenko, T. V., Tambovceva, T., & Segers, J. P. (2020). Green transformations in the healthcare system: the covid-19 impact. Health Economics and Management Review, 1, 48-59. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
25. Vasilyeva, T., Kuzmenko, O., Bozhenko, V., & Kolotilina, O. (2019). Assessing the dynamics of bifurcation transformations in the economy. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 65, p. 04006). EDP Sciences. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
26. Vasylieva, T., Lyulyov, O., Pimonenko, T., Vojtovič, S., & Bilan, Y. (2020). Financial, socio-economic, environmental and public health patterns of creating regional roadmaps to prevent the spread of the covid-19 epidemic. Financial and credit activity: problems of theory and practice, 4(35), 295-310.
27. Yelnikova, Y. V., & Kwilinski, A. (2020). Impact-Investing in The Healthcare in Terms of the New Socially Responsible State Investment Policy. Business Ethics and Leadership, 4(3), 57-64. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]