Self-care Measures and Hygiene Practices in Shopping—Mediating Effect of Social Distancing

Abstract

AbstractThe outbreak of Covid-19 has brought a thrift in the lives of people, business, and the shoppers. As this disease was declared pandemic, the Indian government declared lockdown to break the chain of coronavirus. Due to this, people were locked in their homes and the world was come to stake. This resulted in the anxiety and fear among the people. This lockdown and social distancing guidelines have unsettled the buying habits of the consumers, and it has drastically transformed the shopping habits also. Shoppers are learning to devise and understand new practices. The new normal has become the part of lives of every individual. The study basically aims in identifying the relationship between self-care measure and hygiene practices adopted by the shoppers while they go out for shopping. A total of 236 respondents were administered in Smart PLS version 3.3.2. The results imply that there is a significant relationship between self-care measures and hygiene practices. In addition, the findings prove a mediating role for social distancing, self-care measures, and hygiene practice. The findings of the study can be useful to shoppers and retailers in the devising guidelines to be followed while shopping keeping in lieu of the protection of spreading coronavirus during pandemic. These findings can provide insight to consumer behaviour comprehensively, help companies agreement with similar status quo as well as suggestions for the government to aid businesses effectively in the future.KeywordsPandemicHygieneSelf-care measureSocial distancing