Impact of Covid-19 on E-Commerce: Survey on Customers' Perspective

Studies have been conducted on how the current Covid-19 pandemic affected the E- Commerce businesses, mainly from companies’ financial point of view. These analyses enlightened how these kind of companies have seen their revenues and customer base increase greatly, and how businesses have to rely more and more on an omni-channel strategy instead of a pure brick-and-mortar model if they want to survive the crisis. Researchers have focused mainly on US territory, finding out that the main consequences of the current situation lie in an increased use of E-Commerce from customers and in an augmented degree of digitalization from companies that desire to stay profitable and gain even larger market share in the upcoming years. Studies conclude then that this crisis projected E-Commerce businesses forward of roughly 5 years over the past forecasts, and that a “new normal” has been set that will last for decades. This study focuses on the customers’ point of view about E-Commerce during the pandemic. It analyzes how their behavior and opinion about digital retailers changed over the past months and investigates from an operational point of view the perceived quality of digital retailers and distributors services to final consumers. The analysis started with a survey (728 respondents) conceived to compare customers pre-pandemic online purchasing habits to their current ones. It then investigates the main product categories purchased by consumers before and during the pandemic to individuate relevant differences in customers’ preferences. The study also focuses on how the entire value chain quality is perceived by customers by using as metrics the frequency of stock-outs and damaged products delivered, in order to assess how manufacturers and distributors coped with the crisis from an operational point of view. The survey respondents have then been segmented by age, education level and salary. This analysis allowed to gather interesting insights on how different segments of final consumers changed their online purchasing habits in terms of purchase frequency, purchased product categories, and how lasting the impact of the crisis will be after the pandemic subsides.