Author(s): Rakhi Raturi
It’s time to reflect back. The global pandemic resulting from the COVID-19 is regarded as one of the greatest health crisis in WHO records. Many countries came to a halt as a result of the pandemic: businesses, employees, and markets have been dealing with a variety of difficulties ranging from spread of the disease to various social-human-economic impacts. In India, the crisis started in March 2020 and the consumers were confined to homes like the rest of the world. The individuals became skeptical of all their purchase decisions whether related to essentials like grocery items or high priced lifestyle products. There was indeed a paradigm shift in consumer psychology although the same may not last post covid era. However, the pandemic phase did influence the consumers’ mindset although for a brief stint. This phase gave a valuable insight about how purchase making decisions changes because of the changes in the macro-environment. The purpose of this research is to document and assess how these external shifts in the marketplace impacted consumer behavior overall. The pandemic era may have also created different consumption traits and opportunities for new business patterns that fit in better with changes. An in-depth study was conducted to determine the changes in customers buying perceptions for shopping various products. It also assessed whether the consumer preferred a different shopping environment in terms of inclination towards online shopping; and whether their perception of going back to shopping malls for their purchases have altered a bit.