COVID-19 Consumption Behavior Changes in the U.S

COVID-19 Consumption Behavior Changes in the U.S.
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COVID-19 Consumption Behavior Changes in the U.S
The advent of Covid-19 in 2019 and its progression through 2020 has greatly influenced global health, economic and social structures, and consumers' perspectives that are the main factors for consumption habits and behaviors. Crises, such as Covid-19, model and emerge new consumer behaviors due to varying attitudes and perception of risks due to differences in the effect in social and individual factors (Mehta et al., 2020, p. 292). As one of the most hit countries globally, with more than 20 million infections and 352,000 deaths (Farzan, 2021), U.S. consumption habits have greatly evolved due to the virus as consumers and businesses strive to meet the required health regulations. Various consumer behaviors are visible in the U.S. economy- emergent due to the virus, including the reliance on online shopping, local buying, minimalist and conscious approach, and health-focused purchases (Wright and Blackburn, 2020). Motivations, attitudes, and the adoption of innovations by businesses and customers are some aspects that can be used to understand consumption behaviors in the U.S. during the pandemic. Understanding the motivations and factors pushing consumers towards conscious, local, and online buying among U.S. consumers helps marketers address the emerging needs and trends. Consumer attitudes have also experienced significant changes during the pandemic as their views and reactions are dependent on the social and economic environment. Innovations have also enabled and facilitated consumer changes as they enable shopping online, using apps and social media, which has expanded virtual interactions during the pandemic. Studying consumer changes under motivations, attitudes, and innovations provide a better understanding of the evolving purchasing trends during Covid-19.
Motivation
How the Virus has Led to the Process of Motivation
In this context, motivation refers to the drivers of consumption habit changes that are existent due to the Coronavirus in the U.S. D'Souza (2008) explains behavioral change motivations as induced by needs, goals, and values, which can be personal, social, or economic. In their study on the motivations of consumption behaviors during the pandemic, Parson and Vancic (2020, p. 15) noted that human needs are the biggest influencers of consumption behaviors depending on their urgency. Deriving from Maslow's need hierarchy, Covid-19 has concentrated needs mainly in the three base needs, including physiological, security, safety, and social needs. Health safety regulations form the most urgent needs in the hierarchy during the pandemic, therefore constituting the spending habits' biggest motivator. Sanitation needs and products, physical distancing, and lockdown requirements are the basic needs of motivating spending patterns. To show the economic motivation and the need to limit physical interactions, the country has one of the most reactive consumers as they spend around 15-29% of their net expenditure on groceries and approximately 14% on other products like snacks, household supplies, non-food child supplies, and home entertainment (Charm et al., 2020).
Consumer/Product Values Realized due to Covid-19 Consumption Changes
The adoption of healthy consumption, online services and financially conscious expenditure are some of the consumption changes. Their value, and therefore the source of motivation, is realized through their observance of health regulations, retaining value in perishables, financial sustainability of businesses, and resilience in customers. Personal, social, psychological and financial wellbeing of consumers ensured by these adaptations show their motivational value during the pandemic.
Health regulations are the biggest motivation during the pandemic as people are required to limit their interactions, which can be used to explain bulk buying, online purchases, and local shopping. Physiological needs like food, education, and medicine are the motivations behind the trends. Health is the main modeling factor of buying trends during Covid-19, with consumers opting for ways that allow them to avoid leaving their homes and using public transportation as a way to maintain social distancing. Research by Leinwand et al. (2020) indicates that 57% of consumers choose shopping strategies that limit interactions, with almost half of American shoppers avoiding leaving their homes. This explains the preference of online purchases with home delivery making businesses develop their logistics to accommodate 50% of their customer base, increasing as the pandemic advances. The need to limit the spread of Coronavirus led to proactive and reactive health buying habits as consumers prepared themselves for quarantined living and the challenges presented by the pandemic (Romanin, 2020). Reactive health consumption includes safety and containment products recommended by government regulatory campaigns, motivating bulk buying, and online shopping. Restricted in-person shopping and gathering, in addition to individual health concerns, can also be attributed to the popularization of online shopping and home delivery requests by customers. Romanin (2020) notes that consumer reactions are gradual depending on the regulations and the perceived health risks to individuals, family members, and the community. Health issues affecting the consumption trends include personal health, food and medicine safety, and friends and family's health, making it the main motivation in their spending habits (Wright and Blackburn, 2020, p. 12). Research on U.S. consumers during the pandemic reveals that 78% and 80% of consumption habits in 2020 were motivated by personal and friends and family health concerns, respectively. Supporting local retailers is another shopping habit that consumers have adopted to limit interactions as well as financially motivated as it reduces the prices. s
Covid-19 has also influenced higher education consumption, pushing universities and colleges towards online learning to limit physical interactions and meet government regulations. In their research on how the U.S. education system has responded to the pandemic, Kim et al. (2020. P. 4) noted that fall semester intakes would involve more online classes as they strive for lower costs and remote learning while avoiding Covid-19 hotspots. Although higher education institutions have experienced a decreased enrollment the increased demand for remote learning has led to a 44% of U.S. institutions to develop a fully functional online learning program to suit the need. Although only 5% of consumers dedicated their income to education as a leading motivator, it is one of the biggest motivators, especially of online consumption, behind only the physiological needs in Wilson's hierarchy model (Wright and Blackburn, 2020, p. 12). U.S. colleges have embraced online to address the cost of education due to Covid-19 financial while ensuring remote learning indicated by the huge investments of up to $4.5 billion in the 2020 fall semester (Gallagher and Palmer, 2020). Discounted enrollment prices for online classes to suit the financial motivations like the University of Illinois shows that the demand for education during the period is based on health, innovation, and cost (Gallagher and Palmer, 2020).
Financial motivations have also greatly influenced U.S. consumption habits as consumers try to handle the economic constraints depending on social demographics. The economic motivator in U.S. consumer expenditure can be indicated by the bulk buying and the preference for longer-lasting supplies. The trigger raising such motivations in the U.S. included the closure of stores and the lockdown of whole communities (Romanin, 2020). Wright and Blackburn (2020, p. 13) also note that U.S. shoppers have adopted a more conscious consumption indicated through mindful buying, limiting waste, and more sustainable choices in the products they choose. According to a study by Accenture COVID-19 Consumer Research, cost-sustainable expenditure habits during the pandemic are motivated by financial security fears, with 42% of U.S. consumers prioritizing the need for economic sustainability during the pandemic (Wright and Blackburn, 2020, p. 12). Another research by E.Y. Future Consumer Index (2020) indicates pessimism in spending patterns, with more than 35% of shoppers stockpiling goods and approximately 27.5% economizing their expenditure due to job security. Financial challenges in the U.S. are the biggest motivator for economizing their purchases, as indicated by the politics around the stimulus package to help the increasing unemployed population. A report by the BBC (2020) shows that more than 14 million U.S. workers are likely to lose their jobs due to the virus and face delayed benefits motivating the push for voting for higher payments to its citizens. Shopping local is another financially motivated consumption habit enacted due to Covid-19, where consumers are supporting local businesses and obtaining locally produced goods (Romanin, 2020). This support for local businesses also indicates financial motivations influencing the consumption habits due to the pandemic where consumers are concerned for local organizations and the sustainability of local economies. Borsellino et al. (2020, p. 8) note that the U.S. has adopted a recessionary economic behavior motivating their spending habits shown by long-life foods, rationing, home cooking, and budget-friendly products.
Attitudes
Consumption attitude is indicated in products and brands' preference as dictated by factors like perceptions, experience, and cost. Ajzen (2008. Pp. 530-537) explains consumer attitudes to be the tendencies to choose some products over others due to expectations and values, beliefs, and reasoning. Parson and Vancic (2020) include attitude as one of the psychological factors influencing consumer behavior, meaning that attitudes depend on consumer perspectives and interpretation of experiences during the pandemic. Cole (2007) refers to attitudes as encompassing mental and physical reasoning activities that combine demographics that dictate what and when to buy and the perceived value products. The pandemic has magnified the complexity of consumer attitudes by raising variant consumer values as indicated pandemic shopping habits and reactions to different situational predictions.
Wright and Blackburn (2020, p. 5) note that the coronavirus pandemic has changed consumer attitudes giving rise to five types of customers, i.e., worriers, individualists, rationalists, activists, and the indifferent. The first category is influenced by the developing stage of the pandemic and how it affects the consumers' health and purchasing power. Various consumption attitudes during the pandemic have given rise to healthy buying, branding and local sourcing, online and delivery, pricing strategies, and wastage of resources. Analyzing the pandemic’s influence on heathy buying, food wastage, local sourcing, and online delivery services and how it relates to demographic composition magnifies attitudes complexities during the pandemic.
Healthy consumption attitudes during the virus can band be seen in the adoption of grocery shopping and direct access to farmers through B2C, promoting food and nutritional security during the pandemic (Borsellino et al., 2020. P. 19)...