How Pandemics Impact On Consumer Behaviour

Consumers are the most influential factor in a business and their behaviour

greatly affects the form and how business activities are carried out. This is because

consumer behaviour affects the demand curve, which results to shifts in the supply

curve as well. This forced several businesses to learn and adapt with the changes in

the buying trends of the consumers, and therefore continuation of their businesses.

Some of these buying trends are as discussed below:

Most of the consumers pushed their buying to only the very essential wants,

resulting to hoarding; which is stock- piling of the necessary items resulting in

temporary stockouts and shortages. They weighed the alternatives and substitutes of

most of the luxury goods and did not spend their money on them; unless it were

necessary. This led to decrease in the demand for some goods which most of the

consumers considered non-essential and therefore making their supply to fall

correspondently.

Consumers also learnt to improvise when there are constraints, discarding the

existing habits in the process and inventing new ways to consume. This was as a

result of the newly formulated rues to help flatten the curve of the disease like

introduced curfew times and the lockdowns in most of the areas. For common

physical events such as weddings, funerals and church services, they were pushed to

become virtual, which is a substitute for social gatherings and making such events less

costly than they were before when they were physically attended.

Also, imposing of such rules made most consumers shift to bringing stores home

by making their orders and paying for them over the internet, and getting their goods

delivered to them at their doorstep. Also, most of the employees were allowed to work
from home without necessarily showing up at their places of work, in order to reduce

physical contact and to maintain the social distancing rules. This shows that most

businesses had to incorporate order and delivery services in order to help their

businesses to thrive during the time of the pandemic lockdown.

Finally, the pandemic also saw several workers being laid off from their jobs, or

their roles being reduced, resulting in a reduced income. This thus reduced their

purchasing power due to reduced disposable income for them. Due to this, they had to

find alternative ways of earning more income, and at the same time reducing their

expenditure to the most essential wants. This saw a rise in the demand for the basic

wants, leading to increase in their prices as well.