Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic well-known worldwide for its serious health consequences is having a profound effect on every sphere of life. Taking into consideration that COVID-19 is harming the labor market and economic activity in general, we also consider that this situation is affecting the personal consumption expenditures in case of Kosovo (Ziberi, Rexha, & Gashi, 2021). The main aim of this paper is to analyze how the customers’ behavior will shift the traditional business to an online one in case of Western Balkan countries with special emphasis on Kosovo, North Macedonia and Albania. The study considered the mixed methods using the questionnaire as a method for primary data collection in a random sample of citizens from countries in the analysis. The questionnaire was distributed online using social media in a sample of 1250 respondents. The paper uses the SPSS software for data analysis and hypotheses testing. The study comes to the conclusion that buying behavior is changing due to the imposed measures by governance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the confidence in online shopping has increased significantly which is a good base for further recommendations for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to start reworking selling strategies and to shift their activity from purely traditional to hybrid one — traditional and online — promoting so better the traditional business. Our findings also are in line with a study by Bytyçi (2020) who stated that the consumers in case of the Republic of Kosovo prefer online shopping for one main reason — time loss reduction.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic as a sudden event shook the world
Respondents by the country of origin Respondents by education level Respondents by their age Job sector Family budget Have you bought products online during the COVID-19 pandemic? Has the COVID-19 pandemic imposed the need for online shopping? What products do you mostly buy online during the pandemic? The way of payment during online shopping You buy more online through: You buy more products online from Has the habit you acquired during online shopping due to the pandemic influenced you to continue shopping online even after the pandemic? Does the COVID-19 pandemic impact increasing your confidence in online shopping?
Based on the Pearson correlation, the variable Has the habit you acquired during online shopping due to the pandemic influenced you to continue shopping online even after the pandemic? is in a positive relationship with the variable Do you think that after the pandemic it is necessary for local businesses to develop new sales strategies and move from traditional sales to hybrid? at the level of the coefficient 0.33, we can accept H1
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic as a sudden event shook the world. The COVID-19 outbreak, declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020, has led to economic disruptions that continue to affect financial and labor markets across the globe (Mitchell, O’Donnell, Taves, Weselake-George, & Xu, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic did not leave the realm of life untouched and without consequences. Fear of losing one’s life alluded to great consequences in every other aspect of social, economic and political life. Strict closure and anti-COVID measures make people change their attitudes towards any phenomenon that surrounds them, including the purchase and type of products. With or without their consent, have been obliged to respect anti-COVID-19 measures, including social distancing and limited movement. Internal movement restrictions — whether announced by domestic or foreign governments — generate substantial short-run panic that largely vanishes in a week to ten days. Internal movement restrictions announced early in the pandemic generated more panic than those announced later (Keane & Neal, 2021)
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