(Hedonic) Shopping Will Find a Way: The COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impact on Consumer Behavior

Abstract

The issue currently permeating is how COVID-19 affects our lives, including in terms of consumer behavior. For example, sales of men’s suits have fallen sharply since March 2020, while there has been high demand for jogging pants. While German online retailing was able to increase sales by double digits in 2020, downtown retailers of non-food articles (e.g., textiles, shoes, etc.) had to accept a decrease of more than 20% (HDE 2021, p. 11). Our article focuses on the questions of whether consumer behavior has been fundamentally affected by the crisis, whether previously formed shopping patterns have dissipated and led to new shopping behavior, and whether old habits will return. Using two surveys at different timestamps of the pandemic, we analyze the impact on consumers’ shopping styles and particularly discuss whether the pandemic has permanently changed online shopping tendencies and ethical behavior, and whether the desire for experience-oriented shopping has changed.