The Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on E-commerce and Customer Spending Pattern in South Korea – e-Market Trends, Forecasts and Statistics

Kim Tae-Hwan ,So Yeon Jeoung

doi:10.7176/jmcr/69-03

Abstract

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused a lot of disarray in all sectors across the world. Businesses have been significantly affected by the spread of the virus. Manufacturing, tours and travel, education, among other have been profoundly affected. A lot of strain has been exerted on most multinational operations. The pandemic has impacted retail trading. The need for e-trading and e-commerce has significantly increased because they promote distribution of products with minimal contact between the sellers and the buyers. This paper looks at how international trade has been impacted through addressing methods that have been employed to ensure that countries such as China and South Korea have managed to carry out their manufacturing processes and exportation. The paper explores the available literature regarding the purchasing behavior of prospective customers during the COVID-19 period. Data has been collected in different parts of the world to get facts about the impact of the pandemic. Market trends and future statistics forecasts have been provided. The research has also given possible recommendations that can be adopted by the World Health Organization and all the nations of the world to help in containing the COVID-19 and bring back sanity across the globe. Keywords:COVID-19,E-commerce,Spending Pattern;South-Korea;e-MarketTrendDOI: 10.7176/JMCR/69-03Publication date:July 31st 2020

Highlights

The spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to cause significant changes to businesses and the behavior of the consumers
Primary data was obtained through observation of the daily trends while secondary Information was obtained from scholarly articles from experts, online sources, personal experiences depending on the surroundings and environment as well as presumptions and future predictions
Customer behaviors were put on watch such that revenues for 10 major e-commerce companies were analyzed for a period of 10 days in comparison before and during COVID-19 (Etikana et al, 2016)

Summary

Introduction

The spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to cause significant changes to businesses and the behavior of the consumers. The status of China which acts as the core of major supply chains has been greatly affected. A lot of strain has been put on multinational operations that carry out business both within the country and across the world. Among the sectors that have greatly hit include tourism industry and retail. According to Cheung (2020), this is because tourist industry acts as a major source of income for various markets. Businesses across the globe have shut down while others forced to scale down and cut their workflow. This dramatic pattern has negatively affected trade industry more so online markets where the certainty of delivery of goods is unpredicted. The fight for COVID-19 is global and every country has initiated measures within its boundaries to curb its spread of the virus and reduced the number of deaths

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Methods

Conclusion