IMPACT OF ONLINE BUSINESS DURING

COVID 19
AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY – BANGLADESH
Research Methodology
Esheta Mst. Snigdha Jahan 18-38226-2
Mir Samin Yasar 18-36523-1
Rahman, Mahfujur 18-37040-1
Sujan, Naimul Haque 18-36695-1

IMPACT OF ONLINE BUSINESS DURING COVID 19

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Table of Contents
Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 3
Problem Statement ............................................................................................................... 3
Objectives .............................................................................................................................. 3
Literature review ....................................................................................................................... 3
Objectives of the Study .............................................................................................................4
Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses .................................................................................4
Analysis...................................................................................................................................... 5
Top ten retail of e-commerce in pandemic is below ................................................................6
Discussion...................................................................................................................................6
Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 7
References ................................................................................................................................. 7

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Introduction
E-commerce, also known as electronic commerce or internet commerce, refers to the
buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, and the transfer of money and
data to execute these transactions. E-commerce is often used to refer to the sale of physical
products online, but it can also describe any kind of commercial transaction that is
facilitated through the internet. Internet is changing the way consumers shop and buy
goods and services and has rapidly evolved into a global phenomenon. Online shopping has
become a popular and easy way for customers. In Bangladesh E-commerce has been
evolving fast and has the potential to grow exponentially in time to come. Some companies
are very aggressive in attracting young population by offering convenience, choice, better
bargain and speed of buying. Customers use the internet not only to buy the product online,
but also to compare prices, product features and after sales service facilities, they will receive
if they purchase the product from a particular store. With a growing number of individuals
turning towards the internet and the world of e-commerce to shop, enterprise, make
payments and carry out online banking, new technological advancements will have to come
about to make these transactions secure.

Problem Statement
One of the biggest things is trust and security for online shopping. One of significant factors
in electronic commerce is trust. In order to increase online shopping in Bangladesh,
understanding consumer online shopping behavior and factors influencing this behavior
when shopping online should be given priority. Some non-brand online sellers show a
quality in online, but deliver the different one. Therefore, there is still lack of understanding
towards online shopping in Bangladesh.

Objectives
This research proposal conducted to find factors influencing on consumer buying behavior
towards online shopping in Bangladesh and finding out to examine the perceptions of
adopters and those who are reluctant of online shopping in respect of demographic profile,
consumers’ expectations of online stores as well as its exacting advantages and problems. It
is worth mentioning that internet users are adopters who have purchased online, while it is
more likely that a group of people have never purchased online. This study is expected to
improve our understanding of online consumer behavior

Literature review
Covid-19 has left a bad effect on the global trade. No country can’t import or export any
things for this pandemic. The WTO may serve here as a perfect example with its partially
paralyzed dispute settlement system. In response to the series of recent migration crises,
immigration rules have also been strengthened in many countries. The European Union,
which is traditionally very open to international trade, has recently taken a more assertive
stance in its willingness to impose more vigorously its anti-dumping duties, countervailing
measures and trade sanctions, as well as to undertake strategic investment screening.

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(GRUSZCZYNSKI, Lukasz in 2020) Despite the protectionist measures implemented by
several countries, many countries around the world continue to believe that international
trade and supply chains must be protected during this COVID-19 pandemic for shared
benefits across the global community. (AGARWAL and CHONZI MULENGA in 2020). The
online food shopping industry is in a unique stage of its development. Although some
projected that online food shopping would soon challenge a dominant retail food industry
prior to the COVID‐19 pandemic, online purchases were typically less than 5% of total sales
(Nielsen 2015; IGD 2017; Redman 2020). Nonetheless, online shopping was increasing at a
steady rate as platforms became more user friendly, making it difficult to separately identify
the increase in shopping due to COVID‐19 from longer term trends. We apply panel data
methods to real‐time business data to identify the effect of COVID‐19 on the demand for
online food shopping services. Our estimates are robust to both the choice of the control
period used to measure pre‐COVID‐19 online shopping demand and to the inclusion of
controls for county‐specific shopping trends. By analyzing both aggregate food sales and
sales for specific food products and suppliers, we provide evidence that COVID‐19 has
caused a shift in the mode of food delivery that could ultimately lead to a realignment of
the retail food sector. (Hung-Hao Chang, 2020)

Objectives of the Study

To understand the contemporary scenario of e-marketing and business owners’ observation
towards online marketing in Bangladesh Consequently, the objectives of this research are
as follows:

1. To examine the range of technological advancement in marketing in Bangladesh;

2. To illustrate and clarify the reason for developing e-marketing and what marketing
tools are effective for marketing in Bangladesh;
3. To analyze the use of technology within the promotional activities and significance
of e-marketing in the field of business in Bangladesh;
4. Finally, to formulate suitable implications to implement efficacious e-marketing
strategies and techniques.

Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses

This study proposes that the attitude toward the online service, ease of using the online
platform, customer satisfaction with the service, and responsiveness of the service will have
a direct effect on the online customer retention. The study also proposes that the online
trust in the service providers will have a moderating effect between attitude, ease of use,
customer satisfaction, and responsiveness on one hand, and the online customer retention
on the other hand. Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework of this study.

From the above discussion, seven hypotheses (from H1 to H7) are formulated:

▪ H1: Product factor has a significant positive impact on consumers’ internet shopping
behavior.

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 ▪ H2: Price factor has a significant positive impact on consumers’ internet shopping
behavior.
▪ H3: Time saving factor has a significant positive impact on consumers’ internet
shopping behavior.
▪ H4: Payment factor has a significant positive impact on consumers’ internet
shopping behavior.
▪ H5: Security factor has a significant positive impact on consumers’ internet
shopping behavior.
▪ H6: Administrative factor has a significant positive impact on consumers’ internet
shopping behavior.
▪ H7: Psychological factor has a significant positive impact on consumers’ internet
shopping behavior.

Analysis
Coronavirus impact the whole e-commerce of the world; it has changed the nature of
business. According to research 52% of consumers avoiding to go brick and mortar shopping
and crowded areas. Furthermore, 36% avoiding brick and mortar shopping until they get
coronavirus vaccine. Coronavirus effects different on different nature of products, means
the impact of COVID-19 on several product is very high and, on some product, less impact
(Andrienko, 2020). Overall sale of e-commerce increases because of this virus, people
avoiding to go out, keeping social distance and buying from home, working from home such
as Walmart grocery e-commerce increases 74%. Moreover, the media usage also increased
in this time and Facebook, google update their features to connect more people in single

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time such as Facebook introduce messenger for 44 people that is competing to Zoom.
Similarly, Google also launched updated version (Sarah Davis, 2020).

Top ten retail of e-commerce in pandemic is below

Serial. No Retail Website Millions
01. Amazon.com 4059M
02. Ebay.com 1227M
03. Walmart.com 804M
04. Apple.com 648M
05. Samsung.com 614M
06. Homedepot.com 562M
07. Aliexpriess.com 532M
08. Etsy.com 395M
09. Allegro.pl 292M
10. Rakuten.co.jp 272M

Mostly buying products during pandemic are toilet paper, disposable gloves, freezer, bidet,
kettlebells, bread machine, paint by numbers, puzzle, peloton, coloring book, air purifier,
treadmill, stationary bike, yoga mat, refrigerator, exercise ball and exercise equipment
(Andrienko, 2020). E-commerce has increased the buyers in developed countries even in
developing countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Pakistan. In Pakistan e-
commerce was started in 2000’s but very poor, just 3% of whole population was buying
online (Bhatti, 2018; Bhatti, Saad, & Gbadebo, 2018; Bhatti, Saad, & Salimon, 2019; Rehman,
2018). but now in pandemic it is reported that e-commerce in Pakistan increasing by 10% in
daily record, and 15% raise in internet users. 30-40% surge the demands of products. For
quick service food panda is launched to provide easiness to people. It is good hope for
Pakistan in term of e-commerce that e-commerce trend is move upward (Abdullah Niazi,
2020).

Discussion
COVID-19 has significant impact on e-commerce of the world and in some cases negative
impact but overall e-commerce is growing rapidly because of virus. Coronavirus compelled
to customers to use internet and make it habit in their daily routine (Abiad, Arao, & Dagli,
2020). Furthermore, many challenges facing by retailers in e-commerce, such as extend the
delivery time, difficulty face during movement control, social distance and lockdown
(Hasanat et al., 2020). The process of shipment and supply is quite slow now, but still people
buying because they do not have another alternative. Hence, people moving towards
technology due to virus. Furthermore, some products are very high in demand in market.
Even retailers cannot fulfill the customer’s demands such as hand sanitizers, toilet papers,

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disposable gloves, grocery, and dairy products. On the other hand, negative effect of
COVID-19 on tourism industry, flights are in loss, international trading is very slow and
stuck in their position

Conclusions
E-commerce is a part of our daily life. But in the time of covid-19 e-commerce is a blessing
for us. Because of covid-19 a huge amount of worker lost their jobs. Many of company faced
difficulties to control their normal flow of business and transections. In this time e-
commerce showed us the light of hope. E-commerce gives the chance to the unemployed
people to start somethings new to earn some money for their family. It gives the chance to
all the small and big companies to maintain their normal flow of business and transection.
So, in the time of covid-19 online business was really a blessing for most of the people. But
there was a big risk on online business. One of the biggest things is trust issue and security
for online shopping. By using this situation some group of fraud people started to trick the
customer. In this bad time, it was a painful feeling for somebody, if proper awareness can
be rise among the unaware people then it can be reduced. Peoples need more awareness
about online business and e commerce so that people can get the proper benefit of e-
commerce

References
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286542665_Theoretical_Framework_of_E-
Business_Competitiveness

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293606098_An_Attempt_to_Identify_the_Key_Fact
ors_Affecting_Online_Shopping_Behaviour

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311975.2020.1846882

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.583768/full

https://www.sana-commerce.com/blog/b2b-ecommerce-covid-19-challenges-opportunities/

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=literature+review+of+online+business+during+covid+19
&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3D6RlXWVEmPL8J

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311975.2020.1846882

https://www.abacademies.org/articles/changing-consumer-behaviours-towards-online-
shopping--an-impact-of-covid-19-9298.html

Ahmad Kamil, Dhanapal Durai Dominic Panner. "Bibliographies." A study on the factors that
Influence the consumers’ Trust on E-Commerce Adoption (2009)

nternational Journal of Future Generation Communication and Networking Vol. 13, No. 2, 2020
pp.1449-1452 1449 ISSN: 2233-7857 E-commerce trends during COVID-19 Pandemic

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