PBL / ELLE MAGAZINE: E-COMMERCE PURCHASE MOTIVES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IS A LITTLE MORE COMPLICATED

 

INTRODUCTION

For recent years researchers of customer behaviors have observed significant changes of buying habits resulting in a stronger tendency to online shopping in terms of its frequency and value. Certainly, the Covid-19 pandemic has contributed to a further dynamic development of the e-commerce market offering safer shopping than the stationary retail. Since the Covid-19 has been around for almost two years, it impacts on to many things. One of them is consumer buying behavior and influence traditional and online shopping during the Covid-19.

The growth of the e-commerce market might be accompanied by a simultaneous development of some disorders connected with buying. This statement concerns compensative and compulsive buying first of all which can accompany online shopping to a greater extent than offline shopping. In addition, this kind of shopping behavior might be a remedy for the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic such as social isolation, experience of threat, unemployment, worsening self-esteem connected with declining intensity of social contacts, limited possibilities of self-actualization etc. These premises base on results of the empirical studies which evidenced sufficiently that shopping online might be an important universal factor of compulsive buying independent of cultural conditions.

To slow the rapid spread of the virus, most countries dramatically restricted social life. These restrictions ranged from bans on large events and the closure of schools and universities to a temporary shutdown of the economy. In countries that imposed a shutdown, most retail stores and services had to close. Simultaneously, consumers faced growing levels of economic uncertainty because of rising unemployment and short-term work. Due to the closure of stationary retail stores, online shopping has become the only means for consumers to satisfy their consumption needs.

 

We argue that it is important to study e-commerce consumption, specifically in fashion department during the COVID-19 crisis for two reasons:

First, we assume that the circumstances related to the pandemic will affect consumer behavior in the long term. Therefore, the role of established drivers of e-commerce purchase behavior during a global crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic must be clarified.

Second, measures of social distancing, such as quarantining, must be investigated to understand how they affect behavioral patterns.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Exploring The Issue

 

On ELLE Magazine, there is an article entitled “Revenge is Sweet. Revenge Shopping is A Little More Complicated” by Veronique Hyland. This article appears in the September 2021 issue of ELLE. In the article, there is a state that “lockdown has driven a spate of revenge shopping, a phenomenon that was first observed in China following the end of quarantine and has now spread across a world reeling from the losses of the pandemic”.

 

Stating what is known:

 

a.      Hypothesis 1 (H1):  During a pandemic, consumers’ hedonic motivation is positively related to their intentions to purchase online.

Since consumers cannot pursue their usual leisure activities, they might engage in online shopping as a pastime. We argue that hedonic motivation is a strong predictor of e-commerce purchase intentions among consumers of generation Y and Z with ample free time during the COVID-19 shutdown due to the closing of schools, universities, and places heavily frequented by young adults. Additionally, most of these individuals do not have a family or children to care for, further increasing their amount of leisure time and motivating their search for entertainment.

 

b.      Hypothesis 2 (H2). The more positive attitudes towards shopping online, the stronger susceptibility to compulsive buying.

Compulsive buying online might help better than shopping in stationary retail to hide the addiction from the closest persons inhabiting the same household. In a way, compulsive buying online protects good personal relationships longer than compulsive buying carried out in stationary retail. Conducting the measurements connected with compulsive buying such as checking the offer, ordering, payment, picking up the goods is easier in online retail than in stationary retail. The addicted person staying at home with relatives can use the browser, send the electronic ordering form, pay bills and order the goods with delivery to a parcel locker. On the one hand, compulsive buyers experience a relief of tension and an improved self-esteem (profits). On ELLE magazine, there’s saying that, shopping, usually a joyous activity, is driven here by a kind of mania, and perhaps even grief. People are “seeking some experience or outlet that feels frivolous, because life is so not,” says Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, a professor of public policy at USC and the author of The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class. We’re looking for things “that make us feel like us again, that make life feel joyful again—and consumption is a straightforward way to do that.”

 

 

SOLUTION

Good solutions for everything happened are:

a.       Saving money is more important than buying clothes or anything

Shopping makes us broke and makes us don’t have money. It will get better that our money is saved and don’t transact it all for worthless goods.

b.       Using clothes we already have

Absolutely we have clothes. We can rewear it and don’t buy the same clothes like the colors, the types, etc.

c.       Start with how we want to feel

We are attracted to clothes for the same reason we are attracted to a painting or piece of music: because it makes us feel a certain way. This is what we are chasing with each new piece of clothing we buy — a feeling. On ELLE, the client of McMullen boutique says, “’I don’t want anything in my closet’; ‘I want to redo everything’; ‘everything’s too dark.” Sherri McMullen also says of her customers, “they want to feel the opposite way. Comfort dressing isn’t a big part of it.”

From all of the statement above from ELLE, it shows that the problem is: Most of the time, we aren’t digging deep enough to figure out if this new piece makes us feel the way we actually want to feel. We will never be satisfied with what we have if what we have isn’t in alignment with our values, how we want to show up and ultimately, how we want to feel.

So, the first step is looking inwards and deciding how you want to show up. What do you want people to know about you? How do you want them to feel with you? What do you most want to feel in your own skin?

Use your answers to guide your style and what you buy. Does this piece of clothing make you feel the way you most want to feel?

 

 

CONCLUSION

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, existing behaviors and structures are being questioned. As crises can trigger fundamental economic and societal changes, companies need to understand consumer behavior at this particular time.

We assume that during the current crisis, customers are spending more time online, and we find that hedonic motives exert the strongest influence on generation Y and Z consumers’ behavioral intentions to shop online.

Furthermore, we find that the importance of hedonic motivation predominates that of utilitarian motivation in regard to their respective relationships to purchase intentions. This finding can be explained by limited opportunities available to engage in leisure activities during the lockdown. Consumers seem to shop online for enjoyment purposes and to consider online shopping a distraction or leisure activity. Since all schools, universities, and recreational facilities were closed during the shutdown, generation Z consumers had few opportunities to enjoy their free time, which might explain the higher importance of hedonic motives for these individuals compared to those of generation Y. In addition, susceptibility to compulsive buying increases along with the growing frequency of shopping online, growing expenditures on online shopping, and more positive attitudes towards online shopping. The regression analysis proves that high frequency of shopping online goes with susceptibility to compulsive buying under the condition of positive attitudes towards shopping online.

 

The source of article that we used for PBL are from ELLE Magazine: https://www.elle.com/fashion/shopping/a37320615/what-is-revenge-shopping/