Assignment on the topic of COVID-19 and its effect on Consumer Behaviour

In partial fulfilment for the award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration

Submitted to: Professor Ratinder Kaur

Submitted by: Himani Bamela

Roll No: 18421195

COVID-19
Coronavirus disease or COVID-19 is an infectious disease which is caused by severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus 2 or SARS-COV-2. COVID-19 has caused the situation of pandemic
worldwide with major outbreak in countries like China, Iran, Italy, USA, and Europe. Approximately
196 nations are struggling with the life threatening disease across globe.

In December 2019 world was ready to welcome the year 2020. Many local hospitals in Wuhan, China
reported in unusual number of cases who had fever pneumonia without clear cause and infected were
not responding to any form of existing vaccine or medicines. Soon after seafood market in the region
was linked to all these cases this was a wholesale seafood market which had about thousand Dollars
selling fish chickens, snakes, rabbits and many other wild animal. The cases showed a very high
human to human transmission rate which was further increasing later an initial hypothesis was
formulated that this was a new type of Coronavirus that was spread-out from the animals being sold in
a seafood market. This resulted in a fear that it could be similar to the SARS epidemic of 2002 which
infected a thousand people and killed 774, and this was going to be something much worse by early
January 2020 about 59 suspected cases for picked up from all local hospitals in Wuhan and were
isolated in the Greenland Hospital out of these 59 cases 41 were confirmed with 2019 novel Corona
virus infection. Isolation was too late and before they were isolated these cases had infected hundreds
of others that eventually infected thousands and the starting the 2019 novel coronavirus epidemic.
What’s started as a localized epidemic in the central China quickly spread to involve all other Chinese
provinces in a manner of two weeks the spread was created during the Chinese New Year and
thousands of tourist were out of the home by that time. Situation became very tense when cases in
other countries were also reported Viral transmitted by international travelers. Cases were reported
from Vietnam and soon after several new cases reported from Germany, Thailand, Japan, Australia,
United States, Russia and other new countries leading to global panic situation of epidemic. Chinese
stock market is constantly crushing and this has led to a global economic slowdown already seen by
the world.

Corona virus is derived from the Latin word Corona meaning Crown or hero which refers to the
characteristic appearance of this virus. Virus consists of a code of genetic material surrounded with all
of proteins spikes this gives it an appearance of a crown. Coronaviruses are group of virus that causes
disease in mammals and birds these are RNA viruses with the genome of 2632. New Corona virus has
been detected every few years with the first once been discovered in the 1960 is which caused mild
respiratory infections in chickens since then the number of different coronaviruses have been
discovered. Most effective on birds and other small warm blooded animals mutated in animals they
circulate and due to the close contact of humans with these animals.

Viruses can jump from the animal to the human to start a new disease and viruses have already
infected humans during the SARS Coronavirus which led to the SARS epidemic in 2003 the MERS
Coronavirus and the human Corona virus Anil 63. The latest edition to these names is the noble
coronavirus in formerly known as the Wuhan Corona virus. Sometime these viruses can make a jump
from animals to humans this is known as a spillover and can be due to a number of reasons that
mutations in the virus or increased close contact between humans and animals. MERS Corona virus is
known to be transmitted from camels to humans and SARS Corona virus from civet cat animal to
humans.
Where has it come from?
Corona virus cases first were linked to the South China Sea food wholesale market in Wuhan. Out of
first few recorded cases most of them went to that local sea food market, but as per the earliest
documented case which has been traced back in December there was no connection to the market
surprisingly.

How this virus spreads from one person to another is not completely understood yet, but we know that
the most common way it has been spreading is through droplet infection. It is when a person who is
infected coughs or sneezes and releases viral particles that remain suspended in the air and are picked
up by another person. It is also transmitted through the things that infected person has been closely in
contact with like used clothes switches, keys and door handles. Those who are the highest risk are
people who are in close contact with animals like animal market workers and those who are taking
care of infected like family members, doctors or nurses.

Coronavirus whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang

Coronavirus whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang from Wuhan, China on 30th December 2019 through
online Chat portal informed his colleagues about the 7 confirmed cases of SARS at Huanan Seafood
Market with a picture of diagnosis report through WeChat (online chatting application). The
information was leaked through social media which went viral afterwards. But China Government
threatened him to not share this information.

After the admonition, Li returned to work in the hospital and contracted with the virus on 8 January.
On 31 January, he published his experience in the police station with letter of admonition on social
media. On 7 February, Li died. WHO posted on their twitter handle “deeply saddened by the passing
of Dr. Li Wenliang” and “we all need to celebrate work that he did on #2019nCoV”. Although the
source of the origin of virus has not been detected yet but sources have revealed that wild animals
could be the possible source.

Wuhan is the major outbreak center of the virus and has a population of 10 Million. Now the whole
mankind is suffering due to this pandemic situation. According to WHO report as on 24 March, 2020
Coronavirus death toll is16,747 there are currently 386,332 confirmed cases in 196 countries. The
researchers’ have predicted that the virus may wipeout 10% population across globe if the major
preventive steps are not taken immediately.

How countries are battling with Coronavirus Outbreak?

Home Quarantine: the word quarantine comes from quarantine, meaning forty days, used in 14th-
15th century Venetian language and designated that period for all ships were required to be isolated
before passengers and crew could go ashore during the Black Death plague epidemic.

Quarantine is restriction on the movement of goods and people in order to prevent the spread of
disease. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who
may have been exposed to a communicable disease, but do not have a confirmed medical diagnosis.

Isolation and Quarantine are public health practices used to stop or limit the spread of disease.
Quarantine is used to separate and restrict the movement of well people who may have been exposed
to the communicable disease to see if they become ill. These people may have been exposed to a
disease and don not know it, or they may have the disease but do not show symptoms as of that time.
Quarantine can also help to limit the spread of communicable mass spread of the disease.

The quarantine practice can be done at hospitals, government centers or homes. As in India students
or the people who were coming to their home countries from overseas were quarantined at Chawla
Facility, New Delhi.

Isolation: the method is used to separate ill persons who have a communicable disease from those
who are healthy. Isolation restricts the movement of ill persons to help stop the spread of certain
diseases. For example, hospitals use isolation for patients with infectious tuberculosis.

How India battling with COVID-19

Detection of a travel related/unrelated suspect of COVID-19 will be followed by rapid isolation of
such cases in designated health facilities and line listing of all contacts of such cases.

Home Quarantine is applicable to all such contacts of a suspect or confirmed case of COVID-19

MOHFW Instructions for contacts being home quarantined

The home quarantined person should:

 Stay in a well-ventilated single room preferably with an attached/separate toilet.

 If another family member needs to stay in the same room, it’s advisable to maintain a distance
of at least 1 meter between the two.
 Needs to stay away from elderly people, pregnant women, children and persons with co-
morbidities within the household.
 Restrict his/her movement within the house.
 Under no circumstances attend any social/religious gathering e.g. wedding, condolences, etc.

Problems with Home Quarantine in India

 Quarantine isn’t easy to implement in over populated country like India. There is a
requirement adequate infrastructure so people can safely quarantine themselves. Many
western economies are capable of providing for their people during such crisis. But, in India
most homes just aren’t big enough for people to safely quarantine themselves or isolate
members, who are exhibiting symptoms or have tested positive
 Most Indian homes have 1 or 2 rooms whether in west even the poorest neighborhoods offer
one room per person. Currently, Italy has the most COVID-19 cases and is also the most
overcrowded place to be in situation like this.
 The average household in India is little below 5 members. Census data on size of dwelling
units shows that only 5% of Indian houses have five or more rooms, implying most
Indian shares rooms with other family members.
  The largest chunk of Indian houses has only 1 room which is followed by 2 room houses.
Together, these two types of houses complete 69% of the total houses in the country or 170
million households. Wide population of India lives in slums or sleep on roads.

 It implies that there are not enough rooms to practice social distancing in India and state will
have to intervene to contain the outbreak. Also, there are about 10 million households that
don not have any exclusive rooms for living as the room in which they live is also used as a
working space or shop or office.
 Most households don’t have the rooms to self-quarantine:

Household Size Households which at least % of people that can self-

have 1 room per person (in quarantine
Lakhs)
1 83 92.1
2 106 44.0
3 70 20.9
4 56 10.1
5 21 4.5
6-8 22 3.5
8+ 23 12.4

Total 378 15.3

*The data has been taken from latest Census report

Hence Self-quarantining with proper protocols is possible in only 15% Indian homes because there
are about 4 crore houses that have at least 1 room per person.

The number keeps declining as the household size increases. Analysis of dwelling unit data with the
household size shows that for most of the households, social distancing is logistically impossible.

Impact of COVID-19 on Consumer Behavior

The current situation due to pandemic has created a panic, fear, impulsive behavior in Consumers.
The internet is filled with the suggestions of Do’s and Don’ts and people are taking such articles
seriously which adds to the panic. There are statements about world coming to an end and such
articles and posts are getting a lot more traffic than the rest. This mass spread of nuisance news or
information is somehow much less than what it could have been if search engines or social
networking app wouldn’t have taken the necessary steps. The direct link to WHO website or local
authorized news rooms, somehow has limited the spread of nuisance in the public whereas whatsapp
is still juggling with the issue.

 Spread of Fake news: The panic and sheer feeling of fear have created another cause of
difficulty. The internet currently have bulk of fake news from several different sources some
religious gurus are quoting it as a result of destruction nature as a result of harm caused by
mankind to the nature while other group is suggestion it as the end of world. The fake news is
everywhere which makes it a more severe situation at the time of quarantine. The spread of
fake new may create depression amongst the public or other health related problems which
 may lead to further more destruction. The consumers are spreading news mostly through the
whatsapp portal as the other search engines or social networking sites are directing searches
to the WHO official website or local authorized websites, but whatsapp is still juggling with
the issue of fake news spread.

 Panic: The spread of fake news along with the updated news about increasing mortality rate
due to pandemic have resulted in the situation of major panic in the public. The population in
overseas is going crazy and are hoarding things, groceries, medical supplies and other
necessary items of daily use like anything. The government officials of UAE have quoted that
they may face shortage of daily supplies due to the panic buying behavior of people.

 Reliability on E-Wallets: the pandemic has resulted in high dependence of population on

online transactions and virtual wallets. Even in the local stores the E wallets would be more
adoptable method of transactions in the long run as the portal may provide the ease of
transactions without the physical touch to any object. Also the ecommerce website would be
providing cash back options and other offers or coupons to boost the usage of E- Wallets.

 Shift towards Ed-tech sector: Many marketers have predicted as what the demonetization
was for E wallets in India, the Coronavirus pandemic would be for Ed-tech industry. The
online education pioneer Byju’s have already taken a smart business more and made the
portal freely accessible for students till 31st March 2020. The students will prefer to study at
their own premises by highly educated tutors through Ed-tech portals. Also the companies
from Ed-tech industry might have to change their sales model from counseling visits at
student’s premises to telesales. The Byjus CEO Ravinderam Byjus have quoted that they have
seen 60% rises in traffic just after 2 days of making their portal free.

 Panic- buying: the panic buying behavior is most common outcome of spread of fake news
about the groceries supply slowdown across the economy or increased price of necessities due
to the pandemic or slow supply. So people tend to build a mindset that in order to survive in
situations like current they need to accumulate the necessities and bulk buy which disturbs the
supply of goods in the economy. Europe, UAE, USA has already seen the result of such panic
buying behavior. A limited quota for groceries and other households must be set per person
basis in order to limit is panic buying behavior as so is implemented overseas to control the
current situation.

 Sales are increasing: The businesses are at losses and thus are offering the items at sales
offer brands like ZARA have on one hand totally shut their stores and supply on the other
hand brands like ALDO and MAC were providing sales. Same is the case with e commerce
website after every hour or so a notification can be seen about sale on their portal but a good
initiative has been taken up by amazon and flipkart that they will help with the government
bodies in order to supply the necessity items on earlier basis till the time the epidemic may
last.

 Increased sale of medical supplies: the demand and supply of medical supplies has
increased after the outbreak. Also the demand or sanitizers and mask will be there at all times
even after the epidemic as the same was seen in Japan after the outbreak of Swine flu the
country never stopped using masks and thus the result may be seen now as in current scenario
 the mass spread is not of that extent in the country. Also, the demand of Vitamin C, multi
Vitamins, Immunity boosters may be seen due to current scenario. In some states due to
lockdown the government officials are providing the medication to the patients with the help
of police service which is a very good initiative. A demand of AI- based medication startup
may begin to supply the necessary to the patients in order to avoid stepping outside of
medication of minor acute problems.

 Online orders for grocery shopping: the latest news revealed that big baskets website
crashed due to the overflow of traffic after the pandemic and increased online demand of the
groceries. The same can be opportunity for the local small scale players to make daily dairy,
groceries services available for the public at their doorstep as even after the pandemic the
masses may avoid stepping out in the crowded places for buying routine items.

 Major disruption on supply chains: Having the origination of the Coronavirus in the
Wuhan city of China the region was very hardly hit as a significantly large number of people
contacted the disease and many of them were forced to self-quarantine. And the situation led
to the partial or in several cases the full shutdown of plants, business, factories and
manufacturing houses. Some of the factories were being used by prominent technology
companies in order to manufacture their goods and products. For instance Apple experienced
severe shortage on its iPhone supply due to the result of company’s primary manufacturer
Foxconn shutting down due to the major pandemic and a large amount of apple's production
was in China.

So in order to cope up with the situation the Company needed to reduce forecast in iPhone
shipments through the quarter 1 of 2020. Almost 10% of declined shipments are to be
estimated by Apple analyst Ming-Chi kuo.
In fact “the made in China” products may see a major decline in the demand in other
countries as the consumer may be e very skeptical to buy items which are made or
manufactured or even transmitted through China. Many fashion or jewelry startups like shein,
club factory, Alibaba may see a major decline in the orders from the Asian countries or even
European. The businesses which were dependent on China for supply chain will face the
major difficulty in long run and the same may be opportunity for country like India. Also due
to lockdown in India the supply chain of FMCG may remain disturbed for a while.

 Need of faster 4G technology: the online mode is the only mode most people are dependent
on maybe it for news, education, work or entertainment. Thus the public is relied on this
mode only and due to the sudden increase in the traffic even the online data or mobile service
providers are facing issue. Slow speed and delay in browsing due to multiple people using
internet services at the same time may create a need for faster and better 4G service providers.
The lightning fast speed of internet providers near instantaneous communication and
increased fast connection density make it primed in order to remote interaction which has
become top of mind for many organizations and companies as questions Mount over the
speed of virus the 2K key areas for this could be telehealth and teleconferences. Since many
conferences and events are canceled due to the spread of Corona virus. It is becoming a
difficult for Business operations cope up and survive the pandemic and thus an increased
dependence on these areas will strengthen the appeal for the faster and better internet
connection providers in the countries.
 Increased traffic in video streaming services: Due to the largely dependent on online video
streaming for the entertainment purposes the traffic on service providers like hotstar, Apple
TV, Disney +, Netflix, Amazon prime or even to the local service providers of Cable TV may
rise up due to the current scenario. The online video streaming platforms may use this as an
opportunity to tap the new potential customers in order to pass time and entertain themselves
and the family members. Also, the demand of fresh and different content providers like
bloggers, Vloggers, online streaming series or movies maybe there in in the near future. The
pandemic may lead to fewer footfalls of customers in crowded places such as movie
theatres or amusement parks even after the end of pandemic. This makes it better situations
for online service providers to boost up the bottles with newly engaged and informative
content to keep up with the increase demand of traffic.

 Decline in OOH (out of Home) ad spending: a major decline in the spending of

households due to the impact of social distancing and isolation may be seen.
Consumers in various countries with significant number of Corona virus infected
cases are already trying to avoid large public places and mass gathering. This may
eventually result in the impact of marketers’ willingness to advertise are market or in
the public places and shift the marketing to digital platform. And a significant Boost in
Digital Media Consumption may provide an opportunity for marketers to make ads or
content in more creative and entertaining manner.

 Increased demand for work from Home: due to the infectious disease spread through any
physical contact with the infected person it may result in the shift of work preference of
individuals from the local field work or office work to work from home or from office
premises which may further limit the movability of individuals in masses. Also due to the
spread there could be an increased demand of teleconferencing and meeting through the
virtual media. In future we may see that the major business meetings are being conducted
over the Skype or other video conferencing portals.

 Increased Delivery services: due to the panic or the fear of transmission of the viral, the
consumers may continue avoiding public places in a longer run. There are chances to look for
digital service providers that may fulfil the everyday needs beyond retail including the
delivery of food and on demand goods. Also the courier service within the city may be
demanded in near future. It intern could lead to a rational increase in business for delivery
organisations including Guruhub, postmates , doordash, papers and parcels, and for online
grocery demands like instakart and freshdirect. Variability of the time the pandemic may last
and social distancing measures may result in the grocery and other delivery providers might
provide for the discount offer, EMI options or short term loans so that the consumers may
help consumer to a for the service. And in order to maintain the trust of consumers the
couriers also have to be prepared with demonstration of good health and offer contactless
delivery options in order to minimise the risk of transmission of infections. The courier
service through drone Macy e a more welcoming market due to the current scenario.

 Consumers will wary of investing and flock to saving options: Due to the current of stock
market situations and a high volatile in stocks as seen in the past few weeks. This is mainly
due to the spread of outbreak while there is a fear that we may have to face a global recession
 in the coming time. The Federal Reserve has already enforced an emergency rate cut which
has made the biggest one time cut in the US since the country face the financial crisis. This
also indicates that the virus outbreak has already impacted the economy on the global level. In
such situation of volatility the consumer maybe less wanting to invest their savings in stock
market operations and impact of digital wealth managers that conventionally make the money
MI 2 charging a customer fee which is a percentage of assets under the management. On the
other side consumer might seek out for the saving options in order to be on safe side and less
risky way in order to build wealth CEO The Other platforms which offers saving options will
see increased inflow of funds.

 Potential Drop in Branch visits of Banks and increased online transactions: The
situation due to the outbreak may further result in the reduced number of total branch
visits and the government may be forcing the banks to temporarily close their
branches or reduce their working hours as in some countries this has already been
enforced. This could also be done by discouraging customers from visiting the branch
in order to reduce the chances of spreading the virus through the movement of
infectious. And the customers will still have a need to access to their money this may
be able to lead to an increase in activity of digital channels and call centres and
making digital as the primary channel for the transaction and for a greater portion of
customer across the world would be ideal for the current scenario. 

 Increased demand of short term loans: Also there could be a potential increase demand in
short term loans and credit facilities in order to cope up with the situation of recession or
slowdown of the economy due to the current outbreak. The could be many small scale
business man, freelance workers and people working for local retailers which might see the
shortest of funds due to the lock down as result of the outbreak of the virus. In order to meet
their daily requirements such people or businesses may require short term loans and credit
facilities so they may fulfil the need the arising.

One day everything will be fine again. End of Corona will come and we will
have a great bull run in the economy. In December winter when the sun
doesn’t shine we cannot imagine May heat.

Still Summers Come.

Life will be great again we just need to be patient.

Thank you