For sure, pandemic has changed some of the shopping behaviors, but which ones are just a temporary trend and which ones are here to stick?
If there’s one thing we can be certain about in these times, it’s that our behaviors have changed significantly because of COVID-19. The pandemic created an inflection point that led people to reassess their priorities and needs, and buy goods and consume information and entertainment in new ways.
Asking people what new habits they’re likely to keep might not lead to accurate answers. Research has shown that there is a gap between our intentions and what we actually do. We’re inept at forecasting our own behaviors, especially in an event as novel as a pandemic.
The good news for marketers is that the psychological factors which underpin long-term behavioral change are predictable, even if the external forces people face can’t be predicted. Understanding why and how people form habits can help us better predict how people may react in, and after, novel situations.
New behaviors will only endure if the context is sufficiently stable and there is sufficient reward and motivation to establish new habits.
Observing Google Search trends through the lens of this framework helps professionals whether behaviors are likely to endure or not.
According to Google, for fashion, beauty and telco sectors, online shopping habit is here to stay even in a case where there is no restrictions for Covid-19. For fashion, while only 29% of the customers were shopping online before Covid-19, it increased to 63% since Covid-19 started. The expectation for the following 6 months is that the number will be around 57%.
Google also states that, whilst Covid-19 has closed stores, it is not why people are choosing to shop online. According to a Google Survey made in January 2021, when customers rated their reasons for shopping online for mobile in the next 6 months, "Avoiding stores as worried about Covid-19" came up in the 8th place - which shows that customers have now much more motives to continue their online shopping behavior.
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