Analysing the Change in Consumer Buying Behaviour of

Electronics during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

ABSTRACT

Background: Countries around the world have to face crisis due to COVID-19 also finding
difficulty in coping with social isolation, physical-distancing measures and financial growth.
But there has been momentous growth in the purchase of electronics such as laptops, tablets,
broadbands and smart Tv’s during this pandemic. There might be change in the buying
behaviour of consumers during the pandemic due to several factors. Digitalization has
favoured smooth functioning of such transactions. Objective: The objective of this research
is to find whether there has been change in buying behaviour of internet-based electronics
during COVID-19 pandemic, an in-depth analysis of the factors causing such change and
analyse on digitalization as a factor favouring such change. Method/analysis: The research is
based on both primary and secondary sources of information. Secondary data is collected
through articles, blogs, research papers, newspapers and journals. The Primary data was
collected by circulating a questionnaire consisting of 13 questions. On an average, 150
responses were collected all over the country filled by male and female in the ratio 1:1 with
majority of the population (57%) belonging to the age group of (18-25) years, and 30% of the
sample belonging to (26-45) years. Conclusion: The entire world has changed during
COVID-19 pandemic and one such sector facing major change is the internet based electronic
devices. The establishment of the change in buying behaviour is dependent on the
relationship between variables of age, income, gender, profession. OTT has also favoured
such changes. This could not have been possible without digitalization aiding smooth
functioning of transactions nationwide.

Keywords: COVID-19, electronics, digitalization, work from home.

INTRODUCTION

The Coronavirus Pandemic has changed the entire world. It has put us under certain
circumstances, in which we never thought we would ever be. It has already been 1.5 years
since when it started spreading and now people have adapted to such changes. Be it the work
from home culture, the online shopping culture, the panic buying of nutritious products,
insane use of sanitizers and masks or the ‘stuck at home’ scenario, nothing has stopped and
the world has now finally come on its track. One such industry severely impacted by this
pandemic is ‘electronics’ industry. Owing to the need of the hour or bound by the
circumstances, there has been noticeable purchase of electronics particularly ‘Internet based
devices’ like smartphones, laptops, tablets, smart Tv’s, broadbands. During the first week of
lockdown, there was a spike of 72% in internet browsing. Besides this, streaming platforms
and television viewership also increased during this period. There might be a number of
reasons for increase in use of these products- be it the lockdown, work from home culture,
internet being the major source of entertainment etc. This varies on the basis of profession,
age, income etc.
This has brought a shift in the consumer buying behaviour where people started preferring
online shopping even for costly electronic products, where income did not seem as a barrier
for purchase of laptops not only for the parents but also their kids due to online classes.
Cheaper internet services and digitalization had boosted such change in behaviour. The
Indian ecommerce business was predicted to expand to US$ 200 billion by 2026, fuelled by
smartphone penetration, cheaper 4G networks, and rising consumer income. In a pre- Covid
world, that prediction was based on consumer and market research. However, in the past one
year, both the market landscape and customer behaviour have changed dramatically,
indicating that the ecommerce business will surpass the $200 billion milestone considerably
sooner. The ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’, had played a very vital role during COVID.
Therefore, this research has been conducted to know whether there has been any impact of
COVID causing a change in buying behaviour of electronics and if yes, then what are the
factors which has caused such change.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

1. Deloitte in its Report, "Impact Of Covid-19 Crisis on Short- and

Medium- Term Consumer Behaviour", assessed consumer behaviour in
relation to the term-end consumers who wished / migrated to buy
electronics online. It was shown that Covid-19 forced 48% of the
consumers to buy electronic products online however, in comparison to
52% of the people who had bought electronics online before. The study
which amassed the citizens of the US shows how differently the people of
an already developed nation change their preferences during Covid-19.
2. Nivedita U. and Sanjay J. working for Ernst & Young LLP, in their report
titled, "Covid-19 and the emergence of a New Consumer Products
Landscape In India", compared the Covid-19 situation with that of 2007 -
2009 US Housing Recession and found out how Indians reacted
sporadically during the Covid-19 times. The research showed how
expenditures were diverted to buying just the essential products and
trimmed down the purchase of non-essential products including electronic
appliances. Despite the surge in buying of appliances owing to the
Paradigm shift under 'Work From Home' trend, there was a dip of 2.4 %
in the total purchases made of electronic appliances. With the retail stores
shut down from this further aggravated the situation since many people
did not prefer buying online.
3. UNCTAD in its report, "Covid-19 Has Changed Online Shopping
Forever", conducted a survey to find out that electronic goods sector has
 gained the highest number of online buyers ever since the onset of Covid-
19 in developed economies. The same report however shows the fall of
average online spending per month in the same sector by 48%. The
reason was pretty simple as all other economic recession where people
cut off unnecessary expenditures and focus more on purchasing goods of
importance.
4. Where the world faced a setback and purchasing power dipped in other
countries due to cutting short the unnecessary expenditures, the
increasing consumer wealth in India the electronic goods penetration in
remote parts and the cheaper internet will help India cross the 200 billion
dollars mark under the E-commerce market much before than was that
expected by 2026. The key consumer behaviour changes with respect to
electronics that the survey by NRF showed was that more than 50% of
the people surveyed bought products online fearing the risk of getting
infected elsewise and the same survey calculated that 70% of these
people would likely to continue with the same buying behaviour even
after Covid-19 owing to the satisfactory E-Shopping experiences gained
when shopped online. The same was found by the Hindu Business Line in
its report "Covid-19 Impact: Consumers Move More towards Digital
Shopping".
5. Research & Markets in its Report, "Impact of Covid-19 on Consumer
Electronics Market" assessed how Covid-19 brought in a surge in demand
for electronic products like TV, smart phones and laptops. They
segmented the products under Essential and Non-Essential Electronic
Products. The report found that the 'Work from Home' trend brought in a
huge surge in sales of essential electronic products like that of laptops and
smartphones; however, not much of a surge was seen during the
assessment of non essential electronic products like that of televisions
and smart watches. The report also assessed how China being the Global
Producer and Exporter of such electronic goods disrupted the supply
chain for electronic products globally.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The Research paper basically depends upon the quantitative analysis done through the
Primary Data that was collected by circulating an online questionnaire having sample size of
150 people and Secondary data collected through articles, blogs, research papers, newspapers
and journals.

OBJECTIVES
 ● To find whether there was a change in buying behaviour of consumers of internet-
based electronic products during COVID-19 pandemic.
● To analyse the factors which caused such change in buying behaviour.
● To analyse upon Digitalization as a factor favouring such change in buying behaviour.

RESEARCH METHOD
The research is based on both primary and secondary sources of information. Secondary data
is collected through articles, blogs, research papers, newspapers and journals. The Primary
data was collected by circulating a questionnaire consisting of 13 questions. On an average
150 responses were recorded all over the country filled in by equal number of people from
both genders. The majority of recorded responses were filled in by the age group of 18 to 25
which was around 57% and 30 % from the age group of 26 to 45. The majority of participants
were students or private employee nearly about 53 and 43 percent respectively. The
remaining 4 percent consisted of government servant, homemaker and entrepreneur. Around
35.4% of the participants did not have any source of income as they were students whereas
about 20.3% of the responses had income less than 5 lakhs per annum and 16.5% had and
income between 5-10 lakh per annum.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Impact of COVID-19 on Buying Behaviour of Laptops, Tablet, Smartphone, Broadband

and Smart TV

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a drastic impact on the commerce of several industries, the
electronic sector is certainly not an exception. In our daily lives, electronics are essential
items of great importance, their significance has certainly increased due to the lockdown and
online-working culture. As marketing students, it becomes crucial to analyse the impact of
COVID-19 on buying behaviour of electronic items like Laptops, Tablets, Smartphones, etc.
 Figure 1: Distribution of Respondents on impact of COVID-19 on their Buying
Behaviour

Before analysing the factors, which affect the buying behaviour of a customer, it is important
to establish that COVID-19 pandemic affected the buying behaviour of the customers.

From the above figure, 53% of the respondents answered that COVID-19 did not change their
buying behaviour of electronics, whereas 47% of the respondents concurred that COVID-19
changed their buying behaviour. The primary reason behind this can be the decline in
purchasing power due to COVID-19, however, a significant 47% have answered in the
positive.

There is indeed a variation in the age, income, city, and gender groups of respondents.

(i) Gender

There is difference in the purchase of the concerned electronic items in Men and Women in
the Pandemic period.
 Figure 2: Distribution of Purchase of Electronic items made by Women

Figure 3: Distribution of Purchase of Electronic items by Men

From our survey, we found out that 55.5% of the women respondents and 52% of male
respondents were students. 42% of women respondents and 44.2% of male respondents were
private employees. Since, both educational institutions and corporate offices shifted on the
online mode, the need to have electronic devices soared. In the International Data
Corporation (IDC) report of 2020, in the April-June quarter, the laptop sale increased by
17.6% due to heavy office-work. Most of the vendors finished their quarters with minimum
inventory1. We see that 36% of the respondents purchased smartphones in the pandemic,

1 https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/india-plugged-work-from-home-drives-laptop-sales-
amid-covid-19-lockdown-120081101812_1.html
owing to its mobility and cost-effectiveness. On the other hand, 17% of the respondents
purchased laptops because of the user convenience needed in long working hours.

(ii) Age

Age is a significant differentiating factor in the purchase of electronic items, as the

requirements depending on age groups vary. There has been an impact of COVID-19
pandemic on buying behaviour of electronics based on age as well.

Figure 4: Purchase of electronic items made by Age Group (18-25)

From the figure, 44% respondents from (18-25) age group purchased Smartphones. This is a
relatively new device introduced in 2000’s. Naturally, this age group will connect more to the
latest technology and thus it buys more of Smartphones. The needs of this age group like
browsing, social networking, photos, etc. are also perfectly satisfied by smartphones.
Moreover, because of the lockdown the purchase of smartphones increases despite increasing
prices and low stock. The second quarter of 2020 saw rise in increase of demand.
 Figure 5: Purchase of electronic items made by Age Group (26-45)

Similar observations can be made for Age Group (26-45) as well. 36% of respondents from
(26-45) age group purchased Smartphones. For the generation Z, smartphone is an essential
device. Both for education and leisure this device is indispensable. Chinese mobile vendors
like Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo shipped 11%of their production to India in Q1 2021, one of their
highest2.

Figure 6: Purchase of electronic items made by Age Group (46-65)

From the above figure, 56% of the respondents in the age group (46-65) did not purchase any
electronic item in the COVID-19 pandemic. This is understood because people in this age
group are mostly in the age or about to hit the age of retirement and thus do not have that
level of dependency on electronics. Moreover, the other 22% purchases smartphones, as they

2 https://www.business-standard.com/article/technology/covid-19-crisis-to-derail-growth-momentum-of-
smartphones-in-india-canalys-121042800332_1.html
must belong to the (46-55) age bracket, who are working professionals and to buy a work-
cum-leisure device.

(iii) Profession

Figure 7: Distribution of Purchase as per Profession

From the above figure, it can be concluded that the electronics sector has most affected
private employees and students. Homemakers use domestic appliances but hardly need the
concerned electronic items. Moreover, government servants are provided basic electronic
devices by government, so they don’t purchase them. Out of 53.2% student respondents,
32.3% bought smartphones, owing to the manoeuvrability and multipurpose uses. Out of
53.2% student respondents, 29.2% bought Laptops. There is no significant difference
between the two, perhaps laptops were purchased for the longer working hours and more
feasibility, this could be attributed to the school/college specific need of students which
smartphones do not fulfil. For example, Microsoft Office. Out of 43% employee respondents,
40% bought smartphones, the reason could be similar as to that of students. Additionally, the
work-productivity and mobility will be boosted because of mobile technology.
 Figure 8: Distribution of number of electronics bought in Pandemic period

From the above figure, 63% of all respondents purchased only 1 or 2 devices and 32%
purchased none. Firstly, it important to note that the COVID-19 pandemic had out the
country’s economy in a bad position. The inflation was rising, jobs were getting lost, and
savings were taking hits. It goes without saying that purchasing power of consumers saw a
decline. The unemployment rate has increased to 8% and household savings have fallen by
6% in March 20213. Thus, 1-2 items were the implicit choice. Moreover, since the
respondents were students or private employees, the need for more than 2 electronic items
doesn’t arise even in the pandemic times.

Factors Affecting Buying Behaviour of Electronics due to COVID-19 Pandemic

Several factors can be attributed to the change in buying behaviour of electronics due to
COVID-19. Since, the shift or the change as been established by the findings and analysis
above, it is vital to understand the factors behind this change.

3 https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/tens-of-millions-plunge-into-poverty-in-covid-
ravaged-india-121050800131_1.html
 Figure 9: Distribution of Income of the Respondents

Figure 10: Distribution of Cost of Electronic Items Purchased

From the above figures, a connection can be drawn between the incomes of the respondents
and the cost they bought the electronic item for. A directly proportional relationship exists
between income of the respondent and the cost of the electronic item. 35% of the respondents
who answered ‘None’ would be students. So, the point of focus is the respondents whose
package likes between Less than 5 and 5-10 LPA, as they amount to 37% of the respondents.
This means majority of the respondents come from lower to lower-middle class of the
society. Connecting this to the cost, we can see that dominant cost of the electronic items
purchased is 20k-50k, by 25% of the respondents and 50k-80k, by 20% of the respondents. A
person who earns between 5-10 LPA will have a minimum monthly income of Rs. 40,000
and maximum of Rs. 80,000. Thus, the income and cost of the items purchased gets tallied.

Figure 11: Reasons for buying electronic items in COVID-19 Period

Digitalization
The program of digitization essentially lies on the core of having a digital network by which
services will be delivered to all in an efficient, transparent, and timely manner. “Digital
India” is an initiative welcomed by government of India to take the benefits of public
services available to citizens of the country electronically by enabling digital empowerment
in the field of technology. The country is now following the “Atmanirbhar Bharat
Campaign.” Digitization has played a very important role during COVID-19. Thus, even after
COVID-19, a combination of Atmanirbhar Bharat supported by digital technology can help
India in finding it way on the path of economic development and modernization.
On being asked where did they buy those electronics from- online or electronics store, out of
the given sample, it was found that 51.9 % of the sample bought those products online, while
24.1% of the sample bought it through online retail store. Though a common reason for
buying it online would be the lockdown due to COVID-19, but one biggest factor for smooth
transactions in COVID was DIGITALIZATION. The fact that government had at a time put a
ban on cash on delivery transactions causing people to pay digitally through BHIM, Paytm,
GPay etc. Even, the shopkeepers at the stores went cashless to avoid spread of virus. This
could not have been possible without the vision of Digital India by Narendra Modi brought a
few years back.

This graph shows the percentage of active online shoppers conducting at least one online
purchase every 2 months since the outbreak of COVID-19.

Digital retail transactions have increased dramatically since March. In addition, tap-to-pay
usage increased 150% in March from a year earlier, according to Visa. Since the beginning of
COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen an acceleration of digital payments as contactless
transactions skyrocket. The move to digital requires stronger security, advanced
authentication and better transaction decisioning.

CONCLUSION
The COVID-19 Pandemic has affected all our lives like never before. The impact of the
pandemic has been omnipresent and omnipotent. The business and commerce sector has been
deeply impacted as well, particularly; the electronics sector has seen remarkable change in
consumer buying behaviour. The internet-based devices like Smartphones, Laptops, Tablets,
etc. have been at the centre of this change. The establishment of the change in buying
behaviour is dependent on the relationship between variables of age, income, gender and
profession. 47% of the respondents answered in the positive and concurred with the necessity
of internet-based devices in pandemic times. From our survey responses, it can be concluded
that the exigencies of the online-mode work culture, demanded students and working
professionals to purchase internet-based devices for their work and leisure. Moreover, since
lockdown caused people to stay at homes, the mere of entertainment, Over-The-Top (OTT),
saw a great boom in their content consumption. Particularly, in Tier-1 cities and among
young adults, this factor has played big role in changing their buying behaviour.

RECOMMENDATIONS
COVID-19 has changed the lifestyle of the entire world. The data collected through our
research as well as the secondary data presented in this paper was self evident of the fact that
people have now switched to online shopping/online payments etc. It has also been found
through a research that people will continue with online transactions post covid as well. With
this observation, it is highly recommended to the Government to increase the safety and
security of such online transactions where the data breach is minimum so that digitalization
becomes the new normal for India. In the current scenario, with everything happening online,
securing the data and rights of users is of utmost importance.

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE SCOPE

It was challenging to write a research paper during the coronavirus pandemic. We had to
adhere to the lockdown constraints while not sacrificing the research's quality. Our primary
data collection consisted solely of an online questionnaire survey and due to questions
pertaining to income and other slightly personal questions the turnout was low resulting in
our research paper based on a smaller pool of representatives, moreover our research paper
based on responses from people living in metropolitan or tier 1 cities our outreach to the rural
folks was limited thus making our research paper a little biased and city specific .
For more comprehensive results, researchers can expand their investigation to impoverished
areas of Indian society presenting a more realistic and holistic view of the situation at hand .
Physical surveys or personal interviews can be undertaken for primary data following the
COVID-19 Pandemic. There is also a scope of research towards the production sector of
these products analysing the price factor due to demand and supply.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX