The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Consumer Spending in Flea Markets Evidence in Thailand

Abstract

The current COVID-19 pandemic affects all segments of the economic system. In many countries, the governments have announced a country-wide shut down and adopted various COVID-19 preventive measures to control the spread. The public health and economic crisis change consumer behaviour. People reduce shopping frequency and shift to stores closer to their homes. This directly affects the business sector. The goal of this research is to examine factors influencing the purchase decision of flea-market consumers. This research implements a mixed-method vendor survey to study the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the purchase decision based on four factors in the marketing mix, which consists of product, price, promotion and place. For flea markets in Thailand, the place has no statistical significance. Understanding consumer behaviour can increase selling channels for vendors. In addition, online selling is not only an option that helps vendors to increase their sales, but also a way to survive in the COVID-19 crisis.