1

Pros and Cons: Consumer Behaviors At

Malaysia During COVID-19
Arinah Adila Abdul Halim, Muhaamad Zafrulhafiz Zaili, Suahmeza Esa, Ida Syariza
Kamaruddin, Nur Afrina Zulaikha Amir, Nur Aribah Fatini Zawawi & Adibah Zahiah Azhar

Department of Food and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra

Malaysia, Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT
Consumer behavior is a behavior where the consumer will go through intellectual
processes to analyze their needs and demands in their everyday life, discover the
methods to solve their needs and demands and deciding their conclusions to make
purchases whether the product meet their demands or not. The information and the
benefits, the products will give to the consumers really influence their choices.
Products with good attributes and confident characteristics will give a satisfying
value. Thus, creating a chain of buying for the product once it has gained the
customer’s trust. It started with the intention of the customer, follows by the
decision-making purchase and consuming the goods, and then the post purchase
where it will gives the marketers the feedbacks whether the product is a success or
not (Panipatu & Meena, 2013). Customer behavior is studied by the way the
consumer consumes products based on the roles of the customer as a user, payer and
buyer.( P. Sudarshan &N.Sunil,2016) In this market industry, consumers or buyers
do play an important part in every business because they are the integral part to make
sure the business flops or not. Every business planning will refer to the trend of the
consumer behavior every year or every time a new condition happened. The
consumer behavior will evolve as the time and technology passes.
As the pandemic COVID-19 hits the whole world, it affected the market industry
as a whole. Consumer behavior will be adjusted according to the pandemic condition
where safety and hygiene are the most important things the customer will look upon
to. Every business also has to adjust according to the new trend of the consumer
behavior to survive in this pandemic condition.

Keywords
consumers, consumer behaviors, COVID-19, Malaysia

INTRODUCTION extend. Most of the business were

The ability for the business to affected either it is a big company or
adjust to the current situation is small company that leads to the loss of
fundamental for their business’s life to profits or even the death of the
 2
business in this pandemic situation.
Therefore, sacrifices have to be done
and new ways have to be generated to
combat this problem in this market
industry. The consumer behavior that
changes according to the current
situation brings a lot of pros and cons
to the market industry. Contactless
technology is the most preferable
technology as it is easy and can
contact or transfer information with
other people without physical touch.
As we know, social distancing was the
main point that changes the consumer
behavior to shift to more hygienic and
safer way to buy products for their
needs. The consumers will think of
another way to overcome the new
boundaries to shop that will results to
the new habit. However, it is not only
limited to consumption only, it can
also include the true of shopping, the
information searching and post
consumption waste disposal. (Jagdish
Sheath, 2020).
There are many factors that
influenced the consumer behaviors
such as social context. For example,
marriage and building a family.
Second, is the technology where the
technologies to day help to ease the
boundaries or difficulties the
consumers have experienced
beforehand such as online shopping
rather than physical shopping.
Furthermore, the rules and regulations
that changes in a place, shared spaces
or in a country, scanning for
temperature check before going in a
mall. Lastly, the ad hoc natural
disasters that we can see today that is
COVID-19 that disturbs the
productions and consumption and also
supply chain (Jagdish Sheath, 2020).
Therefore, each of these aspects have
to be referred by each business to
know the trend that have change and
influenced the customer behaviors and
asses its’ customers journey. As for
the cons of the consumer behaviors,
most of the customers change their
daily routines to keep up with the new
normal for today’s condition. For
example, the travel industry is one of
the industries that have been badly
affected by the COVID-19 condition
as the restriction to travel have been
implemented all across the world. It
forms a chain that leads to the loss of
millions for the airlines industry such
as AirAsia. These industries are
affected by the rules and regulations
aspect that influenced the customer
behavior as the rules are implemented
to combat the COVID-19 from
spreading. To summarize, the main
purpose of this article is to identify the
pros and cons of the consumer
behavior in Malaysia to the marketing
industry.
THE PROS OF THE CONSUMER
BEHAVIORS
The pandemic of coronavirus (Covid-
19) has a wide-reaching effect on e-
commerce or online business. During
this time, each one of the Malaysian has
been asked to stay at home to slow
down the pandemic. In this aspect,
businesses have been susceptible to
make substantial transformations from
physical to virtual platforms. However,
 3
this somehow
helps the businessmen or
businesswomen to continue their
business without any interruptions. This
is due to the high demand from the
consumer on the online platform.
According to Kim, R. Y., (2020),
around 46% of respondents have
planned to reduce spending on
physically shopping during the
pandemic. However, there is always a
high demand in essential products such
as groceries and household supplies. But
in order for them to get all of those
things, they have considered shifting the
physical to online shopping which is
37% after conducted the surveys to
consumers. Plus, Gabriel, H. L., &
Christina, M. C. H., (2020) also stated
that there are also has an increment in
numbers of audiences downloaded
mobile applications. As we all know, in
Malaysia there are many platforms that
consumers can use to online shopping.
For example, Shopee, Lazada,
Instagram, Twitter, and others. Hence,
what they need to do just shopping at
those platforms and waits for the
products to be delivered to their house.
Based on The Edge Markets (2020),
they reported that Shopee Malaysia has
observed new shopping habits which is
e-commerce had become more relevant
in customer daily lives as them spending
an average of 20 percent more time on
that platform a week, showing a
growing dependence on e-commerce.
Next, one of the reasons why
consumers start to go on online
shopping because it provides a relatively
safe way to shop during the pandemic
seasons. Some people may have anxiety
over the virus increases and to avoid
large gatherings at public places. By
doing this, at least it could help to
reduce or flatten the curve of pandemic
cases. Furthermore, the consumer will
do online shopping when their needs out
of stock or just to fulfil their boredom at
home such as buy for decoration at the
room, tools for gardening, and others.
Moreover, the consumer has started to
adapt to online shopping as they found
out that it is more convenient and
economical. Apart from that, online
shopping offers greater flexibility in
terms of time, location, and product
varieties. (Mohammad Waliul Hasanat
et al., 2020).
Due to the number of lives that
have been taken by the corona virus,
people started to follow the rule and
becoming more aware of the situation.
Even though some of the people still
rebelling, majority of the residents in
Malaysia are adapting well with the new
rule that have been set up. Many
countries also are impressed by
Malaysian’s patience and consideration
to decrease the amount of corona virus
victims.
Furthermore, some study also has
been done to analyse the attitude of
Malaysians toward the Covid-19
situation. The study was done by giving
an online survey to 4850 Malaysians.
From the survey, 83.4% of participants
avoided going to crowded places, 87.8%
of participants practiced proper hand
hygiene and 51.2% of participants
wearing face mask when going out. This
percentage is the result gotten before
movement control order started (Arina
Anis Azlan etc al.,2020). From the
result, it shows that even before
 4
government started the strict rule, more
than half of Malaysia residents already
aware of the situation and taking good
care of their health safety.
Besides, by starting the movement
control order, the number of people
taking precautions increases as they are
now understanding more about the
danger of corona virus. Also, decreasing
number of victims can be seen during
the movement control order. Televisions
and websites also act as a medium to
give information about the corona virus
and creating awareness to the public.
(Muhammad Yousof Ali and Rubina
Batthi, 2020).
Other than movement restriction,
government also introduced new
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
for restaurants, supermarkets, and
workplaces as preventive measures. The
preventive measures include providing
body temperature scanner and providing
hand sanitizers. For restaurants and
supermarkets, customers need to line up
at least one meter from each other while
waiting to go in, and the number of
people can go in also are limited.
People are seen adapting to this
SOPs well and not complaining even
though they need to wait for a long time
because they understand that all this are
done to protect them. Also, this might
become the new normal for all as the
corona virus behaviour cannot be
predicted.
Hobby can be defined as a pursuit
outside one’s regular occupation
engaged in especially for relaxation.
Choosing a good hobby to fill your
leisure time is very tough and crucial
because it must be related with your
interests or things that you enjoy doing.
During Covid 19 outbreak, people are
spending a lot of time at home than
usual because they are prohibited to go
out and do their daily life routine like
usual. Having much time without doing
anything can make someone feel boring
and lifeless so one of the ways to keep
them actively engaged and occupied is
by doing something that they love.
There are varieties of hobbies to choose
such as cooking, gardening, decorating,
reading etc.
Having hobbies can actually help to
manage time wisely and make someone
become systematized and productive. It
is important to have proper planning and
time management to make sure that the
things they make go smoothly and
perfectly. They will be less likely to
spend their time on something
unbeneficial or time-wasting activities
because they already have good hobbies
to fill up their free time. Picking up a
good hobby that you are really into it
will help to build and enhance new
skills. There is a saying that “practice
makes perfect”. When you spend more
time on hobbies, you will become better
at those particular things and activities.
Finding from research proved that
people that engage in doing hobbies
have a good physical and mental health.
For example, gardening is very good for
the brain not because it is an exercise
but research found that the activities that
are associated with gardening can give
unexpected health benefits to the body.
According to Nurseries For Mama
owner Muhamad Syafiq Osman, during
MCO his nursery received high demand
for hydroponic sets and other gardening
 5
supplies and tools. Online sales of his
hydroponic pots went up 10-fold within
just two weeks of the MCO being
enforced. This is because the
hydroponic method is easier to maintain
while the plants also grow at a faster
clip, compared with soil-potted plants.
The simple action from gardening such
as planting, pulling weeds, and digging
soils are some of the examples that
subtly the action of exercise that help to
boost stamina and strength. According
to a study published in the journal of the
Public Library of Science found that
being outdoors is very good for health
as it can reduce the likelihood of
vitamin D deficiency in elderly people.
Covid-19 happened for a reason as it
can be seen as to be a kick start for
everyone to start practicing good
lifestyle especially on the hygiene
perspectives. This is because consumers
are being exposed to the significant
consequences that might happened if
they are not comply with new norm and
they realized the needs of keeping
environment germ-free to ensure the
chances of being infected can be
minimized. Therefore, due to that,
consumers are more aware of the
important of self-hygiene, products to
contain the virus from spread easily and
items for well-being purposes. Not only
that, it is expected that the trend of
buying items to maintain hygiene could
last for a long-terms because it is
believed that society are more conscious
and stressing out the demands of these
items from manufacturing company to
produce enough stocks for everyone
accessibility for now and future
purposes. Based on the survey
conducted by Vase.ai, it showed that
after the enforcement of Movement
Control Order (MCO) begun, 91% of
consumers started to invest their money
in purchasing personal hygiene products
while 86% of them would love to buy
disinfectants, hand sanitizers and also
face masks. Also, the study from
Vase.ai with an analysis recorded from
1100 respondents showed that
customers have bought more than once
items where 74% of them are personal
hygiene items, another 74% of
consumer bought masks, hand
sanitizers, and disinfectant, 60% of them
invested in home cleaning items and
almost 50% of them purchased toiletries
and medication. These results showed
that the pattern of this behaviors have
been soared up because the consumer
generally have known the most basic
priorities to adapt and embrace these
long-term underlying consequences.
Apart from that, a study reported from
New Straits Times has mentioned that
Malaysia has the highest percentage of
76% of people do the hand-washing
habits frequently compared to other
countries. Because of that, the demand
of these necessities has increased
exponentially as these items are being
used regularly by everyone as frequent
as possible and become the most wanted
items by every household. Thus, the
transitions of these Malaysian behavior
should be praised because they have the
responsibilities as society and are deeply
concerned towards themselves and
others well-being state too.
Moreover, the trend of these
habits majority come from social media
influences and exposures that affect the
decision making of the consumers to
begin purchasing items for own hygiene
 6
usage. Consumers nowadays are being
exposed to the sharing on social media
platform and have tendency to follow
them as for this case where many people
started to promote disinfectant products,
hand sanitizers, and face mask through
online marketing which it can be
accessed by every single online users to
purchase those products. Hence, that is
why the product demands have reached
the peak point of buying through this
pandemic as it is very easy for everyone
to obtain them at their fingertips. Due to
the proactive movement measures taken
from the Malaysian Government in
battling with Covid-19, they have
worked diligently to spread the
awareness of among public of the
importance of healthcare and wellness
during this crisis such as sharing
through online advertisement, education
programs, and social media
communication (Azlan et al, 2020).
Subsequently, all of these sharing of
awareness made the consumers to be
more sensible and alert with current
crisis and try to improve themselves by
having more attention toward infection
prevention products as the best strategy
to minimize the risk of infection.
Thus, it is undeniable that these
behaviors of consumer tendency in
prioritization of products for infection
containment to create more clean and
secure surroundings are the best changes
that ever happened to our society
nowadays. However, there is always has
a backlash of actions that are not
controlled smartly especially due to
excessive buying by consumers. The
issue arises when some customers chose
to stockpiling items and some of them
tend to sell them back at higher price
rate. Thus, Malaysian Government has
taken an action in reviewing the new
price of surgical mask where the new
ceiling price has been set at RM 1.50
per unit set effective starting on 1st April
2020 to make sure there is no
manipulation and fraud to occur from
irresponsible sellers. Last but not least,
everyone should see the effect of Covid-
19 crisis in another side point of view
where actually today’s disaster is
starting point for Malaysian to reflect
and educate themselves to be someone
who is more sensitive about hygiene and
cleaning aspects.
Oil price has always been an issue in
the world because the oil and gas sector
gives a big impact on the world
economy, not only for Malaysia but also
for major oil producing countries. Our
country has been very dependent on the
oil and gas sector as it contributes 20%
to the government’s revenue. According
to OPEC (the organization of the
petroleum exporting countries) the price
of oil drop from US$17 per barrels to
US$-35 per barrels in 20 April 2020. A
rapidly drop of the price cause by a
world massive quarantine and the
reduction consumption of oil in
production and services.
In other good ways, the reduction of
oil price has given a good impact to the
consumer. A fall in oil prices have
caused a reduction of fuel cost and
transport. On 3 April 2020, The
Minister of Finance has announced that
the price for RON97 and RON 95 has
reduced 8 cent per litre to RM1.30 and
RM1.60. For the diesel, the price
reduces 10 cents to RM1.58 per litre.
The lower oil prices indirectly help to
increase the consumer disposable
 7
income and enable them to spend more
on other important goods and things.
Moreover, the transportation services
such as e-hailing services and air
transportation, the decline of oil prices
makes the price for the ticket cheaper as
flights need to be operated even if the
seats are nearly empty as people remain
homebound due to the coronavirus.
Lower oil prices also help to reduce the
cost of living. In particular, if a
household owns a car or uses other
forms of transport that rely on oil. To a
better extent, all of the price of goods
should become cheaper due to the lower
transportation costs. Generally speaking,
lower oil prices are very good for
consumers because it will cost less to
fill up your gas tank or to transport the
items that you buy at the store.
Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-
19) has impacted consumer behaviour in
many ways, especially in spending,
from conspicuous spending to prudent
spending. Due to this COVID-19
pandemic, federal government has
implemented Movement Control Order
(MCO) and has enforced lockdown
around the country. Because of that,
consumers have been constrained that
minimised the urge to spend.
Supermarkets, public markets,
grocery stores and convenience stores
that selling everyday necessities are the
only premises that are allowed to be
operated as usual but limited business
hours. This order has reduced
consumers spending on other non-
essential products which automatically
savings behaviour was nurtured without
realized by themselves. Moreover,
consumers become more price sensitive
and substitute away from more
expensive items when shopping
groceries.
A survey conducted by the
Department of Statistics (DOS) during
the Movement Control Order (MCO)
found that 71.4% of self-employed -
respondents have savings that sufficient
less than a month, while 82.7% of
private employees have sufficient
savings up to two months. The survey
also revealed that 78.9% of government-
linked companies (GLC) and 75.2% of
multinational companies (MNC)
employees have sufficient savings up to
four months (Goh, May 2020).
In addition, a Department of
Statistics (DOS) study found that
Malaysia 's average household spending
had dropped from RM6,317 a month to
just RM2,813 during the MCO by 55
percent. Curiously, the data gathered
indicate that the upper-class, T20
segment of the nation is spending much
less money than its counterparts of
middle and lower, M40 and B40
income. (Hakim, April 2020).
Therefore, Malaysian consumers are
now starting to adapt to this whole new
lifestyle and probably continue this new
norm even after government has
declared that Malaysia is free from
COVID-19 pandemic.
According to The Straits Time article
published on 25 April 2020, stores such
as Lazada and Qoo10 reported an
overall increase in sales since last
month, with electronics, health, and
beauty products topping Lazada's sales
categories. From that statement, it is
proclaimed that during Movement
Control Order (MCO), Malaysian
consumers have changed their shopping
behavior’s and these have resulted in
 8
more online transaction activities such
as TnG e-wallet, GrabPay, Boost, and
online banking.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic
outbreak, the government has taken
extensive measure to put the whole
nation a Movement Control Order
(MCO) and people started to continue
shopping for groceries and other
essential items online as the restriction
order of business operation and limited
of number customers can shopping
physically at once. Based on that, a new
Mastercard study shows about 40% of
Malaysians surveyed are using mobile
or e-wallets more, followed by debit
cards 26% and contactless credit cards
22% (Tan Jee Yee, 2020). As the Covid-
19 can be easily transmitted from people
to people, banknotes and coins also can
be a medium for these viruses to spread
among these people after cash
exchanges during payment at the mall,
stores, and else. Thus, the use of e-
payment considered the safest and more
hygienic to avoid cross-contact of the
Covid-19 with other people. Many
consumers and businesses have been
quick to adapt to the digital world and
cashless payments in order to stay safe
and maintain a sense of normalcy in
these extraordinary and uncertain times
(Tan Jee Yee, 2020).
Furthermore, the number of users’
rates for online shopping applications
has doubled since MCO thus, raise the
use of e-payment nowadays. According
to that, the Mastercard study reveals that
cash usage in Malaysia declined by 64%
since the beginning of the pandemic,
with the shift being region-wide (Tan
Jee Yee, 2020). The proof of consumer
changing from cash transactions to
online transactions as using e-wallet
offers many incentives and cashback to
the users. Movement Control Order
(MCO) is a great opportunity for
eCommerce merchants to gain loyal
customers from the larger market of
Malaysians going online during this
period. As they believe that some
factors such as fast response, easy to
use, and keeping the customers assured
would be a good way for this (Leong,
B., 2020).
Lastly, the use of e-payment not
limited to shop and purchase items
online, bill payments for daily essentials
such as mobile phone bills, utilities,
rents, or internet fees can be made
through online mobile payments third-
party applications. The convenience of
the e-payment made the user has
changed their preference to make the
payment each month much easier since
MCO has restricted the movement to go
out and social distancing rules from the
current pandemic. Moreover, time and
energy can be saved as payment can be
made using one click only. In
conclusion, the enhancement using e-
payment gives many benefits to
consumers as it can reduce the risk of
Covid-19 transmission thus, break the
chain of the outbreak. However, all the
physical stores should start accepting
using e-wallet as primary payment
instead of cash to prevent the Covid-19
to spread.
CONS OF THE CONSUMER
BEHAVIORS
In this pandemic, it has an impact on
individual behavior, where panic buying
and hoarding issues in Malaysia affect
 9
individuals. All of the consumers
thought that Covid-19 as a severe threat
which will cause worries, anxiety, and
fear among individuals whether there
buying and stockpiling of food
products the food sector is facing
increased demand. Maira, N., et al
(2020) stated that as a result of panic
buying and storing food, the food sector
including the food distribution and
retailing have been put under strain.
This has resulted in increased concerns
about food shortages, such as long-life
milk, pasta, rice, and tinned vegetables.
The early stages after the announcement
of movement restriction order (MCO),
as the pandemic has spread throughout
Malaysia, all of the consumers became
panic and that is why panic-buying
started. However, Prime Minister Tan
Sri Dato Dr. Muhyiddin Yassin had
urged the public to stay calm and do not
panic as all of the food supplies will be
enough for everyone.
This high demand for food products
has also impacted the delivery of food
online. This happened because some
companies are struggling with bookings
that are excessive, with deliveries
arriving late or not. However, these
services are one of the initiatives to
ensure the consumer did not panic
buying or hoarding in order to get the
food supply. All of the food delivery
services will send the food to the
consumer and this action was taken
because want to stop the spread of the
virus Covid-19 from became worst and
avoid people from doing a mass
gathering at certain places.
In addition, Gabriel, H. L., &
Christina, M. C. H., (2020) mentioned
that panic buying and food stockpiling
will be enough supply or not for them to
sustain their life. Hence, due to the
panic
have also affected food banks as
donations have decreased. The food
supply was running out hence the
donors could not donate the food supply
to the food bank or the donors also want
to save for themselves to sustain their
life where this is an example that
happened in the United Kingdom. Plus,
concerns about running out of food also
means vulnerable populations that
cannot afford to stockpile will be more
worried about the food supply.
Next, the high demand for foodstuffs
has also affected independent
supermarkets. Some of the measures
have been implemented by these local
stores include delivering food products
to customers to avoid panic buying,
placing restrictions on the number of
customers allowed in any given time to
avoid mass gathering, and limiting
product numbers for one customer.
(Maira, N. et al, 2020).
During MCO, all Malaysians are
advised to stay at home and only the
head of the family can go out for
important reason. Schools and
Universities were closed and only
workers with acceptance letter can go to
work.
Due to this situation, learning and
teaching process, meetings and
discussions were all held online. Also,
most people spending their time
accessing the internet for social medias,
online shopping websites and
entertainment platforms.
By observation, Malaysian
Communication and Multimedia
 10
commission (MCMC) states that by the
first week of MCO, the internet traffic
show increment by 23.5% and further
increased by 8.6% in the second week.
Due to the increment, users were facing
slow internet connection. Moreover,
MCMC states that this problem not just
happened in Malaysia but other
countries as well.
Moreover, students who lives in
rural area is affected the most. This is
because, most internet coverage are
more focused on city area. So, even if
the students in rural area got the
connection, the connection will be really
slow (Lim,2020). Due to this situation,
most student missed their online class
which affected their studies.
During Movement Control Order
(MCO), government had issued the
closure of all government and private
premises except those involved in
essential services such as water,
electricity, energy, and
telecommunications. However, some of
services that non-essential but may be
categorized as a need for consumer are
still in restriction for operation such as
vehicle maintenance and internet service
installation.
Due to this restriction, internet
service installations and maintenance
works allowed only in green zones with
no confirmed Covid-19 cases. However,
broadband networks installation work is
strictly forbidden at customer premises
within both yellow and red zones.
(Malay Mail, 2020). Consumers living
within the yellow and red zones are
advised subscribing to wireless
broadband services without the need for
home installations only as installation
and maintenance was prohibited.
Furthermore, vehicle service centres
are closed during MCO period.
Customers whose have vehicles break
down problems or require repairs during
the movement control order (MCO)
period will have to wait until the order
is lifted (Nation, 2020). However,
vehicle service centres have to close
their services as suppliers for spare parts
and hardware shops are also not allowed
to operate during this period.
Moreover, premises that are not
allowed to be operated include laundry
shops. If consumers have been going to
self-service laundry shops, they will
have to find other means of doing their
laundry as these outlets will have to
close during MCO (Lim, 2020). This
restriction is implemented to avoid the
public from gathering.
Since the beginning of this pandemic
virus is risen, the unprecedented
pressures especially due to price
gouging has been a top list concerns
among consumers. The crisis happened
due to supply shortages coupled with
the risen critical demand for essential
items where this situation put significant
pressure on consumers. Not only that,
the skyrocketed price that is
considerable fair and standard is set by
the sellers because they see today’s
issue as the rare opportunity to gain
extra profits as people are critically
sought for those items. Moreover, the
demand for personal healthcare, foods
and other essential supplies are soared
up dramatically in this season where the
critical disruption of demand and supply
of goods can lead the economy to suffer.
Not only personal hygienic products,
items such as audio headsets, video
conferencing, and home entertainment
 11
devices are desperately sought after by
many, as they are limited to stay at
home. In addition, the possibilities of
price gouging to be happened are
because of border restrictions enforced
by the government that make it become
harder to get supply from other
countries. The international border is
closed makes limited transportation of
foods or products to enter our countries
as the preventative measures before the
virus getting out of hand, therefore
creating a short supply to consumers.
When travel restrictions across borders
during the pandemic are creating labor
shortages, this disrupts the usual
seasonal process of migrant farm
workers. Border barriers are often the
consequence of transport shortages,
making it more difficult to get
agricultural goods into the market.
Transporting items from one point to
another is another problem that adds up
the total cost of products, which then
represents how much customers have to
pay. Next, the factories and industries
were forced to close and stop their
operations for months meaning it is
expected to be a shortage in supply of
some goods and this indeed drive the
price up.
A lot of complaints have been
reported where most of the issues are on
the price hikes and overcharged items,
good, services and commodities. An
online shopping channel including
Lazada and Shopee checked by FocusM
have shown an increase price of
cleaning items, disinfectants and
groceries (Kong, 2020). For instance,
the price of disinfectant spray is
introduced between RM 70 to RM 80
for 450 ml spray can which little bit
expensive compared to normal price.
Even though a lot of complaints and
reports have been created to address this
issue towards these online platforms,
but there is no action has been taken
against these sellers. Moreover, in
another cases, some sellers started to
sell face mask at new price which is RM
2.40 per piece which is relatively high
compared to standard pricing. A seller
has been fined up to RM 10000 because
selling face masks above the ceiling
price set by the government which is
RM1.50 for 3 ply layers (Bernama,
2020). Not only that, chicken meat
prices also seem to be increased after
the enforcement of MCO as consumers
stay home and start to cook for their
own. Recently, a lot of consumer were
impacted when the chicken prices rise
excessively and most of the sellers
claim that is due to prices set by farmers
and suppliers (Harian Metro, 2020). The
media also stated that some places
around Malaysia have price gouging
since 14 May 2020 where the starting
price is RM 8 to RM 9 per kg compared
to standard price RM 6.90 per kg.
Finally, the price gouging that happened
now is one of the challenges need to be
swallowed by everyone in this world as
there is no option can be made to
control the price from being fluctuated
especially in this crisis. However,
everyone should start to spend wisely
and choose the best platform for buying
in order to avoid being involved in fraud
and manipulation by others.
As the Covid-19 pandemic begins to
threaten the entire world, the number of
positives cases reported every day
suddenly increases caused the amount of
medical waste, clinical waste, and
 12
domestic waste surging. Personal
protective equipment (PPE) for front
liners, surgical masks, gloves, and other
medical equipment are piling up daily to
cure the quarantined patients per day.
Imagine how many sets of personal
protective equipment that doctors and
nurses need to wear and change per day
to treat Covid-19 patients in order to
break the chain of the outbreak.
As long as the world has not found a
cure for the Covid-19 virus, a new norm
had to be adjusted and implemented in
daily lives. These include for consumers
need to wear a face mask as it is
compulsory before enters any premises
or shops or going outside with a public
gathering place that will prevent the
spread of infection and prevent any
individual from contracting with any
airborne infectious germs. In these
situations, the best practice of how to
wear, remove and dispose of the face
mask properly are important to be
followed as the used face mask could be
contained with infectious germs that
may infect another individual if not
disposed of properly. According to The
Malaysian Reserve news article
published on 27th March 2020, “Ever
since the Covid-19 pandemic began in
Malaysia in early February, the nation’s
clinical wastes have increased by 17%
compared to the monthly average from
various health services institutions”
(Nur Haziqah A Malek, 2020). The
management of clinical waste needs to
be processed further to assure it does not
compromise public health concerns.
Furthermore, since Movement
Control Order has been announced by
the government, Malaysians need to
stay at home to help the local authorities
break the chain of the Covid-19
pandemic. As the results of that, they
over stockpile the food during panic
buying which has short shelf-life and
expired can lead to food wastage.
Besides, there was a post in a social
media recently viral about netizen
complained who bought many loaves of
bread local brand from Gardenia ended
up in the dumpsite of the housing area.
A study shows that to gain insight into
food waste, respondents were asked to
indicate the main reason for discarding
food and the responses reveal the most
cited reasons were overcooking (35%)
and too-long storage in the refrigerator.
This could be a piece of solid evidence
that the household waste increased
during a stay at home when starting of
MCO.
Last but not least, medical waste
from hospitals contained bodily fluids
and other infectious germs and bacteria
becoming a huge concern as they bear a
surging number of patients of Covid-19
admitted daily. These concerns create a
huge increase in medical waste such as
personal protective equipment, gloves,
used syringes, and much else.
According to the article, The Verge said
that hospitals generated six times as
much medical waste at the peak of the
outbreak as they did before the crisis
began. The daily output of medical
waste reached 240 metric tons, about the
weight of an adult blue whale (Calma,
J., 2020). On top of that, some waste
that usually not referred to as medical
waste such as food waste from coming
contact with patient of Covid-19 also
needs to be handle properly before
disposing of it. In conclusion, food
waste should not increase than usual as
 13
the consumers need to need food supply
when necessary and store the food
properly to the extent their shelf-life
while medical waste needs to dispose
properly to prevent from infected with
other individuals.
FUTURE PREDICTIONS
In these uncertain times, we are
going to witness many transitions of
consumer behavior and how the
conditions of living with pandemic virus
would influence their life for now and
later. Most of the consumers have
already plan their expectation, try to live
with the new norm and some people
might not be able to cope with all these
exponential changes and perhaps some
groups take time to recover from the
aftermath of the pandemic. So, the
question is what happens next? In what
way consumers are going to invest their
money after all of these?
First, let’s take a look for new
customer segments that have emerged
during the crisis. The largest percentage
which is 35% of the consumers come
from group of people that are not so
concerned about current situation but
they are still worried about their
families. That means, they tried to save
more money and emergency items and
then stockpile them as they are
pessimistic about the long-terms effect
because they believed the worst will
happen. These people are the one who
started the issue of panic buying where
they bought large amount of item
especially groceries unusually due to
sudden fears that the products will run
out of stock or price rise will happen.
Next consumer segment is cut-deep
consumers which is recorded to be 27%.
Unfortunately, they are the most
impacted group for this virus
consequences whey they try to limit and
cut all of the expenses with maximum
effort in order to survive in this season.
Therefore, they spend the less where
generally most of their money are being
invested in groceries. Not only that, this
group comes from an age between 45
years old and above where they have
had to experience jobs being suspended,
unemployed temporarily or permanently
and many other issues. Next group is the
group who stays calm and carry on
which is around 26%. Most of them are
not really impacted by these changes
and did not change their spending habits
where they would still buy the usual
things like they have always done.
However, they are concerned with the
stockpile and panic buying came from
the first group as they believed that
those selfish habits would bring
negative side effects and very unethical.
Then, the last customer segment is
group of people who hibernate and will
spend when necessary with the
percentage of 11%. It can be said that
this group is very concern about this
crisis but they took a really good
strategies to handle with it. They
believed that during this season, they
need to slow down their spending,
shopping less frequently and track their
record regularly. Also, they seem
optimistic about the future and already
plan out how things will happen.
Now, we are going to predict
what is going to happen later for these
customer segment and how they are
going to react during post Covid-19. To
list some of the customer segments that
 14
will appear after this crisis are get to
normal group, cautiously extravagant
group, stay frugal group, keep cutting
group and back with a bang group. First
of all, let’s focus on “get to normal”
consumers segments. For them, they just
have to live their normal life back and
do not expect much that this crisis can
bring so much changes in their daily
routine. However, maybe some of them
will change their spending habits such
as changing brands, try to cut some
expenses if necessary just for a
precaution purposes. Next, the
cautiously extravagant group are the one
who still not feel secured and are afraid
the period of economic contraction will
happen where they observe that some
business might have less demand, and
start to generate less money. Due to that,
companies start to cut some costs by
laying off their employees and maybe
some of the impacted customers come
from these situations where they
become unemployed due to companies
have stop growing. These types of group
come from middle to high income
background where do not struggle much
with financial aspects. Next group is
stay frugal group where they still cannot
comprehend with these changes and
only prioritizing their financial on
something that they really need.
Basically, they will try to get on their
feet back and will struggle to keep
things back to normal by limiting their
spending and change product
preferences. Then, the group of keep
cutting is very impacted even though
after the Covid-19 season. Majority of
these consumers come from relatively
small income group and have a lot of
commitment such as a family with many
members. Also, they might come from
least educated background, likely not
working type, and always struggle even
before pandemic attacks. Thus, they will
keep cutting their spending to
maximum, change their product usage,
budgeting their buying and will go out
for groceries shopping once a month.
Lastly, there is a group that would be
back with a bang which means they are
very optimistic and ready to spend in
essential and non-essential goods.
In addition, the consumers are
also predicted to invest their money to a
company or services that they think did
good things for society during the crisis.
They would help and contribute for
domestic and local company to grow
back again rather than buying imported
goods from other countries.
Furthermore, the consumers are
expected to change their behavior and
money on activities and leisure,
vacations and holiday, meals from
restaurant and clothing and footwear
after the crisis is over. Travelling has
the highest vote among people (44%) as
the activities they would reflect and
change because they have fears with
being infected. Not only that, majority
of consumers strongly agrees with the
idea that the things they trust most
should be reassessed and that other
things will not be taken for granted.
Meanwhile, more than a quarter claim
that they pay more attention to what
they invest and what is the consideration
needed to take in an account. In our
post-crisis world, perhaps, will we see
consumers becoming more aware of the
consequences of their choices?
 15
CONCLUSION
The COVID-19 has created a new
trend to the consumer behavior as the
new condition has disrupt the daily life
of the people. The consumption of the
consumers has limited time and limited
space due to the rules and regulations
that have been applies, not to forget the
economic impact that have been
experienced by all kind of business. All
of the businesses were adapting too to
the new condition to serve their
consumers and deliver the products as
usual to their customers. Thus, new
ways have been introduced so that
consumers can shop easily without time
and place bound. Since the consumers
are restricted to move as usual to go to
their usual shops, the shops have come
to the consumers via online shopping
and delivery. Online based services
were the top choice in this urgent
condition as it only take a click and the
products or services are ready for the
consumers without going anywhere.
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