“A phenomenological inquiry on how Covid-19

pandemic boosted e-commerce sales”

Problem Statement
The Covid-19 pandemic had locked the entire world inside homes but that didn't mean the
demands had gone from the market. Merely the shoppers have adopted the situation and shop
online and for that, the e-commerce sector is booming in Bangladesh and is expected to hit
USD 3 billion mark by 2023. It is known that online sales have increased by 70-80% compared
to the previous regular time. Millions of people have been employed in this sector. Business is
expanding rapidly. People’s purchasing behavior has changed. Even after the slowdown of this
pandemic, many people are finding buying e-commerce products are more comfortable. Now,
the question may arise how a pandemic situation has contributed so much to changing the
purchasing behavior of customers.

Selection of Participants
To conduct this phenomenological inquiry, I chose three participants with different contexts and
backgrounds (i.e.- age, gender, education). They are:
1. The first one is my classmate, Selina. I have chosen her because she regularly buys
products from e-commerce even before the corona pandemic.
2. My second respondent is my younger brother, Rahad who has started to buy products
from e-commerce sites from the beginning of the pandemic.
3. My final respondent is my uncle, Mr. Selim. The reason I chose him for my inquiry is he
bought products only once from the online sites.

Data Collection
The purpose of data collection in this phenomenological research is to collect the naive
descriptions of the experiences of my participants. This will allow me to extract the
consciousness from the experiential interviews. For this, I used an online survey via Google
forms and an in-person interview.
 The Interview on Phenomenological Perspective

Ques-01 Before the Covid-19 pandemic situation, how you were

purchasing things? Online/Offline method? Please share your
experiences.
Responses:
a. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Selina used to buy things from both online and offline
methods. She had little time to explore e-commerce sites for her cherished products. But
whenever she saw massive discount offers on the eve of any festival (i.e.- Eid, Pahela
Baishakh), she hardly could resist and place an order on an e-commerce site. This is
why her buying patterns were mixed.
b. Rahad used to buy products only from the offline method. Prior to the pandemic
situation, he never tried e-commerce-based products. Because of fear of this unknown
marketplace, he only bought products from the offline method.
c. Mr. Selim also had similar fear and trust issues like Rahad and that's why he used to buy
products from the offline method only.

Ques-02 After the Covid-19 pandemic situation, how you are

purchasing things? Online/Offline method? Please share your
experiences.
Responses:
a. During the pandemic time, Selina tried e-commerce sites more than in previous times
and had a lot of beneficial experiences. So, after the Covid-19 pandemic situation,
Selina tends to favor the online method more.
b. Rahad was compelled to place orders on e-commerce sites and also had positive
results. This is what changed his buying patterns and started to buy products only from
e-commerce sites.
c. Even after the covid-19 pandemic, Mr. Selim still supports direct purchasing from the
stores as he faced negative product delivery from these sites.

Ques-03 What inspires you to change/ remain constant in your

purchasing behavior?
Responses:
a. Selina has learned that her tight schedule won't allow her much time to buy things
directly. Much product availability and lucrative discount offers have earned her trust and
this is why now she mostly buys things from e-commerce sites.
b. Rahad has discovered that Bangladesh’s e-commerce site is still in its infancy age. They
still try to place discount offers for boosting their promotion. So, buying products more
 efficiently compared to direct shopping, Rahad has completely changed his buying
patterns and keeps up e-commerce products buying.
c. Mr. Selim still remains constant with his buying patterns. During the pandemic, he was
forced to place an order on a particular e-commerce site. But their delivered products
weren’t up to quality. This is why Mr. Selim still holds the same value for e-commerce
sites and prefers a live experience for shopping.

Ques-04 How can the e-commerce industry of Bangladesh

develop more?
Responses:
Three of my interviewees had a common experiential belief that the e-commerce industry of
Bangladesh is still in its infancy age and has to go through more miles. They provided a lot of
crucial feedback on the development of the e-commerce industry. Such as-
1. Lack of National Policies: The lack of appropriate national policies to support the
system has hindered the growth of this industry.
2. Delivery Channels: Compared to customer location, we have very few delivery
channels available which are resulting in late deliveries.
3. Financial Transaction Security: Financial institutions aren’t providing sufficient support
(i.e.-loans or payment systems) to this industry's stakeholders.
4. Slow and Expensive Internet: Slow and expensive internet is causing consumers to
have harsh and demotivated experiences.
5. Lack of adequate resources: Lack of adequate resources is down-trending the growth
much.
6. Trust: Various e-commerce sites had offered a lot of lucrative offers and then were
unable to satisfy customer demands. So trust issues and fear work negatively for the
shoppers which hamper the development of this industry.
7. Inability to assess feedback: The absence of a proper mechanism for resolving
consumer dissatisfaction is another major drawback. E-commerce sites have a tendency
to neglect customer feedback which actually could help them to correct their mistakes
and uphold customer satisfaction.

Epoche and Eidetic Reduction

An ancient Greek term Epoche means suspension of judgment. In the light of Phenomenology, it
refers to a process of setting aside assumptions and beliefs. Eidetic reduction connotes a
method by which the researcher removes from the consciousness of individual and concrete
objects to the trans empirical realm of pure essences and thus achieves an intuition of the
eidos, apart from all that is contingent or accidental to it.
By doing epoche and eidetic reduction in phenomenological research it benefits us in two ways:
1. Epoche as an internal tool, to make progress within a given field of science and as an
external tool, to evaluate the very notion of what science is, and the role of science among other
ways of knowing.
2. Eidetic reduction avails us to identify those essential components that uniquely constitute
our experience of time.
Hence it becomes a prerequisite for phenomenological evaluation. As a consequence, I applied
these two methodological prerequisites for my phenomenological inquiry and find out these
themes:
1. The central theme is those who tried e-commerce sites once during this pandemic, have
experienced optimistic services and changed their buying patterns. Before the pandemic
situation, people hardly bought products from e-commerce sites. The reason behind this
was the lack of trust issues and fears towards a new system. But during the pandemic
time, people were at home, but they still had to buy their necessary commodity products.
This is when they were compelled to buy products from e-commerce sites. Then,
e-commerce products won their heart by placing lucrative discount offers or the ability to
provide or serve the customers even in distressing times. After the pandemic, when
people were getting back to their normal lives almost, they realized e-commerce sites
were really comfortable for them with a wider range of products and almost having
sensible pricing. This charmed them to change their buying patterns from direct
shopping to online-based shops. To put it simply, Covid-19 came as a massive
opportunity for e-commerce owners which they took firmly and served people
conscientiously, and now people are rewarding them back by placing their utmost trust in
e-commerce sites, resulting in enormous profits from the business.
2. Another theme is people who didn't buy products or didn't receive up to standard
products from these sites are still advocating for offline methods.

Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness is what makes it rational for people to accept research findings – to build future
research upon them, to utilize them to inform public policy and to use them to guide individual
choice and community action. So to prove credibility and rationality, I have to analyze the criteria
of trustworthiness of this phenomenological inquiry. Such as:

1. Authenticity
In a phenomenological evaluation, a researcher has to eradicate all the presuppositions
of his own. I have followed this criterion by doing epoche and eidetic reduction and
bracketing all preconceptions which ensured all my findings aren't value-laden.

2. Validity
As we know, phenomenological evaluation involves two types of validity for
trustworthiness. They are
a. Isomorphic
 b. Intersubjectivity
To ensure these two types of validity and extract the essence of my study, I have
properly used epoche and eidetic reduction tools. This is why from the first question
responses to two types of themes all my findings are interconnected. As a result, I was
able to demonstrate the methodological task of my phenomenological evaluation which
is about faithfully revealing and describing “the things themselves”.

Conclusion
The purpose of the phenomenological approach is to illuminate the specific, to identify
phenomena through how they are perceived by the actors in a situation. Here, by
phenomenological inquiry, I have analyzed and identified the phenomena of how covid-19
proliferated the e-commerce business. By following in-depth interviews, I understood the
phenomena, prior to that epoche and eidetic reduction ensured my preconceptions are removed
which resulted in my findings being free of value-laden. Last but not least, checking the criteria
of trustworthiness has ensured my findings are to be consistent, credible, and valid.