St.

Anthony’s College
HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
San Jose de Buenavista, Antique 5007

COVID 19 PANDEMIC; ITS EFFECT TO THE INCOME OF ONLINE SELLERS

IN PATNONGON, ANTIQUE

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Covid 19 Pandemic

According to World Health Organization (2021) Coronavirus disease (COVID-

19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Most people infected with

the virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without

requiring special treatment. However, some will become seriously ill and require medical

attention. Older people and those with underlying medical conditions like cardiovascular

disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, or cancer are more likely to develop serious

illness. Anyone can get sick with COVID-19 and become seriously ill or die at any age.

The novel human coronavirus disease COVID19 is the fifth documented

pandemic since the 1918 flu pandemic. COVID19 was first reported in Wuhan, China,

and then spread around the world. The coronavirus has been officially named Severe

Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV2) by the International

Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses based on a phylogenetic analysis. SARSCoV2 is

believed to be contagious from an animal coronavirus and later adapted its ability to be

transmitted from person to person. Because the virus is highly contagious, it spreads

rapidly and continues to evolve in the human population. (Yen Chin et al. 2020)
 St. Anthony’s College
HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
San Jose de Buenavista, Antique 5007

The Philippine response to COVID19 has been described as one of the longest

and most stringent lockdowns in the world. Entire provinces and cities were closed,

mobility was restricted, and the use of masks and social distancing was strictly enforced.

The infractions were punished with punitive measures. The government relied heavily on

the police and military to ensure that order was maintained and all health protocols were

followed. This has led some observers and scholars to label the government’s response

“draconian,” “militarized,” or “police-centric” (Hapal, 2021). With the rapid spread of

pandemic COVID-19 in the Philippines and In whole wide world, people around the

world express panic in various behaviors (Nicomedes and Avila 2020). This affects the

economy of the county, social values, and psychological stress of the people involved

regardless of the directness of contact with the infected.

Effects of Covid 19 Pandemic

Pastor (2020) mentioned that the start of the extreme community quarantine in the

Philippines last March 2020 became the intervention of the government to slow down the

spread of the Coronavirus or more commonly known as COVID-19. The pandemic was

interfering many operations in the world which brought challenges to all affected

countries which includes the Philippines.

Pastor (2020) mentioned this to the sentiment of the Filipinos in the effect of

extreme community quarantine caused by COVID-19 pandemic particularly Luzon. This

 St. Anthony’s College
HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
San Jose de Buenavista, Antique 5007

sentiment reveals that most of the Filipinos encountered several problems concerning

extreme community quarantine (ECQ) . It is recommended that intervention should be

done bases on the requirement of the Filipinos who encounter problem in the food

shortage and everyone should support to flatten the curve in order for the operations and

life back to normal.

Chakraborty & Maity (2020) mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic is

considered as the most crucial global health calamity of the Century and the greatest

challenge that the humankind faced since the 2nd world war. The current outbreak of

COVID-19 has affected over 21644111 people and killed more than 146,198, people in

more than 200 countries throughout the world. Till now there is no report of any

clinically approved antiviral drugs or vaccines that are effected against COVID-19.It has

rapidly spread around the world, posing enormous health, economic, environmental and

social challenges to the entire human population. The coronavirus outbreak is severely

disrupting the global economy. Almost all the nations are struggling to slow down the

transmission of the disease by testing & treating patients, quarantining suspected persons

through contact tracing, restricting large gatherings, maintaining complete or partial lock

down etc.

Online Sellers
 St. Anthony’s College
HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
San Jose de Buenavista, Antique 5007

According to Koo (2018) the cost of data storage, access, and transmission has

decreased dramatically as the economy has become more digital. Platform firms like

Amazon and Airbnb have built online marketplaces that have given individual

entrepreneurs, sometimes known as sellers, unprecedented market access by leveraging

digital technologies. Much of the existing research on digital platforms demonstrates that

platforms can influence seller behavior through a range of reward and punishment

mechanisms, such as search ranking algorithms and surge pricing. However, a significant

portion of the difference in sellers' behavior can be related to characteristics in their local

surroundings, which are outside the platform's control. Many of their behavioral patterns

may be explained by factors such as sellers' cultural conventions, neighborhood

interactions, and legal perceptions. These considerations have a significant impact on

how vendors behave on digital platforms. Their actions, in turn, have a significant

societal impact on a platform's growth trajectory. As a result, both platform designers and

politicians must pay attention to sellers' diverse local surroundings in order to predict

seller behavior, establish appropriate designs, and formulate solid policy.

Internet has become the opportunity for the sellers to add value to their products

and services. The key to attract more consumers and businesses to engage the benefits of

Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) are the phenomenal growth and rising of the

popularity of the internet. The transactions between parties are electronically rather than

by physical exchanges or direct physical contact. This has transformed the traditional

commerce and enhanced sales and exchanges of products and information. With the click
 St. Anthony’s College
HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
San Jose de Buenavista, Antique 5007

of mouse the availability of goods and services is changing the global setting (Aldin,

Brehmer and Johansson 2004).

Using a mechanism design framework, Chen et al. (2020) demonstrate how the

live streaming platform can leverage information provision to improve its advertisement

revenue upon traditional position auctions. They develop an analytical framework that

incorporates the main characteristics of online influencers as well as different levels of

consumer sophistication to investigate a firm’s live stream adoption strategy and offer

useful guidance for the firm on quality investment, pricing strategy, and influencer

selection.

E -commerce makes online shopping a common practice they identified five

major factor that influenced the consumer’s intentions to switch from offline to online

channels, which include channel-risk perceptions, price-search intentions, search effort,

evaluation effort, and delivery time. Although Internet users can switch with relative ease

from one Web site to another that provides similar products and services, some

consumers seem to stick with specific Web sites (Gupta et al. 2004).

Effects of Covid 19 Pandemic to the Income of Online Sellers

As the global COVID-19 pandemic grows in reach and breadth, the ramifications

for workers and labor markets become increasingly severe. Even the most cautious

projections of a controlled worldwide outbreak reveal major global macroeconomic

 St. Anthony’s College
HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
San Jose de Buenavista, Antique 5007

consequences (McKibbin & Fernando 2020). For at least three reasons, online freelancers

are in unstable employment arrangements in general, and the pandemic offers a

particularly difficult scenario for them. First, because they do their business online, they

are more vulnerable to competition (Dunn 2017). Second, freelance employment is

project-based: beyond the specifics of the project’s contract, there is little to no

commitment between the employer and the worker (Wood et al. 2019). Finally, online

freelancers are susceptible in many nations due to their status as independent contractors,

especially during economic downturns.

According to Lau (2020) the prevalence of COVID-19 in low- and middle-

income countries (LMICs) raises severe concerns about effective pandemic response and

preparedness in the setting of compromised health systems and widespread

misinformation. It allows us to study how COVID-19 was perceived by homes in extreme

poverty in the Philippines.

The extant literature has situated the importance of e-commerce platforms that

facilitate virtual interactions and include informative and insightful product information

(Chandna and Salimath, 2018; Li et al., 2020) that consumers might consider to be

economic benefits (Zhang et al., 2017). Such that, firms can increase sales revenue as e-

commerce platforms help leverage existing consumers and attract new ones, build social

groups, and ensure compatibility with legacy systems (Lee et al., 2018), especially in

pandemic periods (Nielsen, 2020a, Nielsen, 2020b). In fact, Covid-19 has disrupted and

changed the business landscape as managers have been thrust into the position of
 St. Anthony’s College
HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
San Jose de Buenavista, Antique 5007

operating online supplies due to the reduction of in-person contact. However, the

literature has yet to address how e-commerce platforms can benefit both firms and

consumers during the pandemic. As a result, managers who seek to implement online

selling currently have no specific guidance to improve consumer intention for sustainable

consumption over time and circumstance (Guillen-Royo, 2019; Hernant and Rosengren,

2017).

Factors That Could Affect Online Selling During Covid-19 Pandemic

A highly infectious disease caused by a new coronavirus was first found in

Wuhan in December 2019 and quickly escalated into a pandemic, officially termed

COVID-19. To combat the World Health Organization’s declaration of a “public health

emergency of international concern,” a series of interventions and recommendations, like

wearing masks, working from home, social distancing and lockdown, have been issued to

limit physical interactions between citizens. People have accelerated their usage of ICT to

undertake daily tasks such as shopping in order to adapt to the setting of mobility limits

(Nguyen et al., 2021).

Prasetyo and Dela Fuente (2020) mentioned that it is difficult to establish e-

commerce without first understanding the factors that encourage online shopping. E-

commerce must establish the aspects that must be met, as well as the criteria they should

be consistent with. According to a study that looked into online purchasing, the shopping
 St. Anthony’s College
HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
San Jose de Buenavista, Antique 5007

experience and reasons led to high purchase intent. Another study found that attitude and

a shift in customers’ attitudes toward making online purchases are important aspects of

online purchasing.

According to Tran (2020) the relevance of e-commerce platforms that promote

virtual interactions and contain relevant and insightful product information that customers

may view to be economic benefits. As a result, businesses can enhance sales revenue by

leveraging existing customers and attracting new ones, creating social groups, and

ensuring compatibility with older systems, especially during pandemics. In reality, due to

the loss of in-person contact, Covid-19 has disrupted and transformed the company

landscape. Managers have been forced to operate online supply, which has disrupted and

changed the business landscape.