Research Article - (2021) Volume 10, Issue 4
Received: 30-Mar-2021
Published:
20-Apr-2021
, DOI: 10.37421/2162-6359.2021.10.592
Citation: Fareed, Daniyal. "COVID-19 and the Inclination towards Online Shopping of Retailer Clothing Brands." nt J Econ Manag 10 (2021) : 592
Copyright: © 2021 Fareed D. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
This research focuses on the effect of COVID-19 lockdown on local clothing brands. The primary aim of this study is to emphasize on the shifting from traditional style of doing business towards doing business online. The nature of research was quantitative and the information was collected through research articles, blogs and different websites as a secondary source, and the primary sources were the representatives of different online shopping portals, consumers and the sample size for the study is 265 and SPSS was used to do the analysis of the data.
Consumers • Clothing brand • COVID-19 • Pandemics
The outbreak of Corona virus disease 2019(COVID-19) from the Wuhan city of china has made a historical impact on mankind. The entire world went into complete lockdown which shackled the world economy and every aspect of human life. COVID-19 has changed the lifestyle and preferences of almost everyone. It has indented in such a way that it has altered the ways we carry on with our day to day lives. Like every other fold of life, significant changes were made at the core of how businesses operate. Consumer market made a shift towards online shopping as a primary method of their shopping instead of going to brick and mortar stores. However, the overall trend of sales and revenue generation was on a decline but there was a significant increase in the sales generated by online shopping.
This has been a trend for almost the whole world. Similarly in Pakistan people turned their heads towards e-commerce websites and different online stores. Since online shopping was something that used to be done on a comparatively smaller scale and generated lesser sales, it was not a focal point of most of the businesses running across the country. But when the lockdown was imposed throughout the country and many businesses had no way of generating sales, shifting to cater to customers an online platform was the only way for the businesses to survive.
Hypothesis
“The outbreak of COVID-19 has made retail clothing stores to shift towards online rather than the conventional ways of shopping for clothing brands”
Dependent variable: Online shopping
Independent variable: COVID-19
Literature review
To test our hypothesis, a thorough inspection was done of the available literature related to our hypothesis. We have selected the most relevant articles, blogs, news, etc., and included their briefs in the literature review of our research.
Forbes magazine
“How COVID-19 is transforming e- commerce”. Millions of online customers changing their behavior at an equivalent time to choose longer saving and convenience put a substantial strain on e-commerce and online retailers today. How they prefer to react will define the longer term of e- commerce. Many are choosing to get rid of the friction that stands within the way of turning occasional customers into the foremost loyal. And they are starting with securing online identities and protecting accounts from takeover control. Stay-at-home orders will eventually be lifted state by state, but in the meantime, many consumers are creating and reinforcing new online buying behaviors and habits. In many families, online grocery, apparel, and entertainment shopping will replace store and mall visits permanently until a vaccine is on the market. However, e-commerce sales may stabilize at a lower rate of growth than they are today. Yet, the behavioral changes are already in motion to completely change the retailing landscape and commerce overall for years to return.
Arabnews
“Pakistan e-commerce giant says online sales surged through coronavirus lockdowns”. Pakistan’s e-commerce and digital economy have registered an enormous boost in sales during the coronavirus pandemic as shoppers’ physical mobility is restricted. Although the digital industry remains in its infancy stage in Pakistan, there has been a gradual rise in e-commerce transactions and the number of registered e-commerce merchants has also increased significantly. “We have received an overwhelming response… our data shows that online orders have grown by nine times [since March],” Muhammad Ammar Hassan, chief marketing officer at Daraz.pk, told Arab News. According to the claim of the State Bank of Pakistan, the necessary shift towards the electronic payment methods and online transactions will stimulate trade and consumption which will produce an increment of 7% in the country’s economy and will also create 4 million jobs and boost the GDP by $36billion by 2035. “The footfall on stores and shopping malls has declined up to 80 percent after the outbreak of the coronavirus while revenue of the retail business has been reduced to only 25 percent,” Rana Mehboob, chairman for Pakistan’s Chain store Association which represents 200 of the country’s most prominent retailers, told Arab News. He further stated that the online business has been boosted up to 50% since March 2020. Although the online business has seemingly been the priority of consumers during the COVID-19, the overall scope of business in Pakistan is not sustainable as the overall sales and revenues of businesses have been significantly reduced despite the surge in online shopping
Profit Pakistan today
“Survive or thrive how ecommerce reacted to C19 lockdown” Since the start of COVID-19 pandemic the footfall of the customers in brick and mortar stores is on a double-digit decline. Although the decrease in footfall has been encouraging in terms of containing the pandemic, it has knocked the country’s economy. On the other hand, it has proven to be a great opportunity for E-Commerce to grow exponentially. The measures taken in the current pandemic may change the way we shop forever. But it is also important to realize that the change in this shopping behavior of the consumer is something that is out of necessity and not because of the user experience. Upon inquiring from different various online shopping websites, there was an unprecedented surge in the traffic and transactions throughout the pandemic. Not only the demand increased from the consumer end, but the number of registered vendors on these websites grew greatly.
Daraz
In the initial days of the lockdown, Daraz launched its HumQadam program which facilitated and encouraged SMEs to get registered on their online store and kick start their business with a larger customer base. Furthermore, Daraz’s HumQadam program was backed by an investment of 4.5crore to provide financial stability and support to SMEs. This has resulted in the registration of 30,000 sellers out of which 4,576 are verified and operational on Daraz. The enforced lockdown on stores selling non-essential items resulted in the shift towards online shopping platforms. Daraz essentially helped in creating a quick and direct channel between the consumers and saving the sellers from the hassle of creating their domains.
Yayvo
As an online marketplace backed by a courier service, the company did not face any kind of issues in the last-mile delivery due to its parent company. Although the only bottleneck was related to the surged demands of the consumer against the non- availability of products due to the lockdown imposed in March. It took some time for the vendors to manage their supply-chain and assortment of the products that were available in our store. Categories like appliances, entertainment, and fashion saw a decline initially but picked up the pace in the latter days as the initial panic wore off. Adapting according to the situation is the basic rule of survival and shifting to online platforms for reaching consumers has proven to be the support that many businesses required to avoid getting bankrupt.
Hummart
Due to the lockdown of COVID-19 local brands have started showing interest in selling online which was predominated by international brands. Local brands and small business owners have both survived the pandemic by taking all the necessary measures to shift from their traditional style of doing business to doing business online. E-commerce not only lets you cater to millions of people at your convenience but it also the way that most of the shopping transactions will take place in the future.
Google trends
Comparing the search trends regarding different clothing brands Google Trends is a great feature that shows the frequency of how many times a given term is searched on Google’s search engine. This tool will help us understand the consumer trends during COVID-19 and eventually help in further proving our hypothesis (Figures 1-3).
Figure 1. This graph tells us about the increased online searches of different clothing brands during COVID-19. It is important to notice that during the initial days of the lockdown, the demand for clothing items was not hyped.
Figure 2. After the initial stages of the lockdown, the frequency of searches for these fashion brands peaked and the highest rate of conversion and organic online traffic was also observed during this period.
Figure 3. Furthermore, a recent study has found the total increase in online sales revenue during the current pandemic.
Research philosophy
In research philosophy is the first-step of methodology as it creates the base of the data collection, extraction, and process. Through this, researchers explore the possibilities of systematically gathering information from different sources to systematically complete study objectives and questions. Some of the research philosophies are positivism, realism, and interpretivism as it provides structure to study. Interpretivism philosophy supports the qualitative study, and it allows researchers to extract detailed information. However, realism philosophy is critical because these objectives are related to the real event, and researchers need to capture data from authentic sources [1]. For the present study, information has been derived from positivism philosophy as it supports quantitative research, and in this, the researcher capture data from numerical sources. The researcher derives information from a quantitative source as it allows the researcher to measure the relationship among variables with the help of software to derive results accurately.
Approach
Based on the studies deductive and inductive are approaches of study, and they are connected with the philosophy of research and further allow analysts to derive data from accurate sources [2]. Accordingly the inductive approach supports interpretivism philosophy, and in this, detailed information is extracted. This approach is considered because it is one of the flexible sources and allows researchers to derive information from multiple ways in detail. In an inductive approach, an analyst emphasizes specific observation, and as per that, they derive information in detail to complete the study effectively [3]. However, in this study, the researcher focuses on the deductive approach because it supports positivism philosophy and it is captured through the quantitative source. The deductive method has a complete structure that is being followed by researchers globally; it starts with a hypothesis of the study, and further information is collected to accept or reject it as per sources. However, quantitative data provide numerical data, which helps in concluding results and allow the researcher to gather knowledge about the relationship among variables and complete findings effectively.
Data collection method
The primary and secondary are data collection methods that researchers consider to complete the study systematically and fulfill the requirements of objectives effectively. The primary techniques provide more specific information because, in this, first-hand knowledge is gathered, which is related to a study. However, secondary sources are considered to get detailed information, and it helps to complete the literature of research [4]. In this study, the researcher adopted both methods to complete the study because the analyst mainly needs to capture information related to reeducation of car financing revenue in silk bank and for that primary data is required, and secondary data further complete the requirement of literature. The secondary information has been derived from books, literature, researchers, journal, articles, and other online sources to get the authentic information. For the primary source, the questionnaire has been considered by the researcher to capture information from customers as they are people who finance a car from Silk Bank.
Sampling size and technique
The sample size of a study is one of the critical things as it needs to be selected with complete concentration because it impacts the research findings. The sample size selected for the study is 264 and it represents the population of online shoppers during the lockdown period of COVID-19 [5]. The two sampling techniques are commonly considered by researchers, which are probability and non-probability. The probability-sampling techniques are simply random, random cluster, and systematic sampling [6]. In the current study, the researcher has been adopted non-probability sampling because the analyst does not have information about the total population. When the researcher does not have information about the population non-probability sampling technique is considered, and from further techniques, the judgmental sampling method is adopted. Through judgmental sampling, the researcher can judge people and gather information from people who are online shoppers or have a potential to be online shoppers.
Ethical consideration
Ethics of the study are considered by researchers because it has an impact on the findings and credibility of the study. In this research, numerous ethics are considered because they can affect conclusions and allow the researcher to systematically complete the study. The researcher provides credit to the study authors and derives information from authentic sources to enhance credibility. Further, the researcher does not manipulate any data from primary and secondary sources to maintain the findings' integrity. However, respondents are part of the study and the researcher respected each individual, and information has not been derived forcefully. The researcher derived information from customers and treated them anonymously as they were not willing to share personal information, which is part of the study's ethics [7-9].
Sources
Customers: While conducting any business research, the point of view of the consumer is of pivotal importance. Estimating the total number of people who shop online is a difficult task but according to a report, at least 10 million people have shopped online. The sampling method used for the collection of data was convenience sampling method as the total population was unidentified. The sample size was 500 and the tool used for the collection of data was questionnaire.
Retail: The primary focus of this study is how retail clothing brands went through a change in their style of operating business due to the lockdown of COVID-19. 3 retail clothing brands were selected and the tool used to collect data from their employees was interviews. Employees from different designations and relevant departments were interviewed and asked questions about how the pandemic affected their traditional style of doing business and how did they manage to cater to their online audience.
Online shopping stores: Online shopping stores were a great source to gather data about how the enforced lockdown resulted in a great surge in online shopping. The largest online store of Pakistan was selected and interviews were conducted from the employees of relevant departments to have a fair idea about how Local retail brands opted for an online platform to survive during this pandemic.
In light of the data collected through interviews, questionnaires, and observation it has been evident that COVID-19 lockdown made retail clothing brands opt for online shopping as their primary source of doing business in the lockdown which tends to align with the hypothesis.
First and foremost, praises and thanks to God, the Almighty, for His showers of blessings throughout my research work to complete the research successfully.
I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my research supervisor, Prof. Dr. Salman Manzoor, Education and Literacy Department, Govt. Of Sind and Prof. Dr. Muhammad Asim, Chairman Karachi University Business School, University of Karachi, for allowing me to do research and providing invaluable guidance throughout this research. His dynamism, vision, sincerity, and motivation have deeply inspired me. He has taught me the methodology to carry out the research and to present the research works as clearly as possible. It was a great privilege and honor to work and study under his guidance. I am extremely grateful for what he has offered me.
I am extremely grateful to my parents for their love, prayers, caring and sacrifices for educating and preparing me for my future. I am very much thankful to my friends and classmates for their prayers and continuing support to complete this research work. My Special thanks to my group mates and all of the people who helped me to collect and compile the necessary data and made this research possible.
