The impact of COVID-19 on the evolution of online retail : The pandemic as a window of opportunity

Szász, Levente and Bálint, Csaba and Csíki, Ottó and Nagy, Bálint Zsolt and Rácz, Béla-Gergely and Csala, Dénes and Harris, Lloyd C. (2022) The impact of COVID-19 on the evolution of online retail : The pandemic as a window of opportunity. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 69: 103089. ISSN 0969-6989

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Abstract

Pandemic-related shocks have induced an unexpected volatility into the evolution of online sales, making it difficult for retailers to cope with frequently occurring, drastic changes in demand. Relying on a socio-technical approach, the purpose of this paper is to (a) offer a deeper insight into the driving forces of online sales during the pandemic, and (b) investigate whether pandemic-related shocks accelerate the long-term growth of online retail. Novel, high-frequency data on GPS-based population mobility and government stringency is used to demonstrate how time spent in residential areas and governmental restrictions drive the monthly evolution of online sales in 23 countries. We deconstruct these effects into three main phases: lure-in, lock-in, and phase-out. Lastly, using time series analysis, we show that the pandemic has induced a level shift into the long-term growth trend of the online retail sector in the majority of countries investigated.

Item Type:

Journal Article

Journal or Publication Title:

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Additional Information:

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 69, 2022 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103089

Uncontrolled Keywords:

/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1400/1406

Subjects:

?? online retaile-commercemulti-level perspectivemobilitygovernment stringencymarketingm21 ??

Departments:

Faculty of Science and Technology > Engineering

ID Code:

175746

Deposited By:

ep_importer_pure

Deposited On:

09 Sep 2022 14:15

Refereed?:

Yes

Published?:

Published

Last Modified:

12 Feb 2024 00:45

URI:

https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/175746