Abstract
Online trade has shown a sharp increase since the outbreak of pandemic Coronavirus. The COVID-19 has affected almost all financial and business activities around the world, even in Pakistan. It has changed the way consumers used to shop before the pandemic outbreak. Many companies until recently have developed and created their online stores and making up the most of their sales using internet channel. Consumer have no other choice but shop from home. In this research study, we discuss the impact of COVID-19 on e-business practices and consumer behavior in Pakistan. The theory of acceptance model has been applied where consumer behavior, e-business, and COVID-19, and posted as a key construct of the proposed research model. Structural Equation Modelling approach has been used to examine the interrelationship of variables of research. We applied two-step recommended Structural Equation Modelling approach, first, validate the constructs by using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and then conducted Structural Equation Modelling path analysis and report the results, which indicated that in the present scenario COVID-19 has significantly impacted both e-businesses and consumer buying behavior in the context of Pakistan. This research briefly highlights the e-commerce trends and discusses the rapidly growing scope for online businesses and makes several future research suggestions, especially in the context of cultural and other barriers such as digital payment adoption in developing economies. This study limitation is the study sample and context-specific to Pakistan.
Highlights
The pandemic, COVID-19 was unknown until the outbreak started in Wuhan city of China, in December 2019
This study employs structural equation modeling (SEM) approach and developed a model that represents the three main variables of the study, i.e. COVID-19 effect, e-business, and consumer behavior to investigate the relationship in the present virus outbreak scenario
Certain fitness indexes indexes for the pooled constructs do not achieve the required level (ChiSq/df= 5.245, RMSEA =.149, GFI= .581, AGFI= .547, and CFI= .590). when we examined the factor loading, it was found that factor loading for 2 items, one from the construct ebusiness, and one item from construct consumer behavior is not above 0.5, if we look into the rotated component Matrix in SPSS, these items are loaded on two factors
Summary
The pandemic, COVID-19 was unknown until the outbreak started in Wuhan city of China, in December 2019. The economic damage is largely driven by a fall in demand for goods and services (Kowalewski & Śpiewanowski, 2020) This indicates that consumers for goods and services are available in a limited number or they have significantly reduced their consumptions (Gretzel et al, 2020). The lockdown imposed during the pandemic has further obstructed the export and import facilities in the country This may result in increased product prices in near future (Craven et al, 2020). The online internet and mobile transactions are quite promising and expected that the upward trend will continue in near future due to the steps taken by the Government and SBP (State Bank of Pakistan), to promote digitalization in a painful time. This study will be unique for the country's literature as in past no single study such as have been conducted in any pandemic disasters
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