Republic of the Philippines

SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Business Administration and Hospitality Management
Tacurong Campus, City of Tacurong

CONSUMERS PURCHASE BEHAVIOR: BEFORE

AND DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

KATE HASMIN M. PALOMAR

ANGEL ROSE S. VALLE

KAREN M. MACAILING

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

ADMINISTRATION AND HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT,

SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY,

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE

DEGREE OF

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEm

SEPTEMBER 2022
 Republic of the Philippines
SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business Administration and Hospitality Management
Tacurong Campus, City of Tacurong

Chapter I
INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Nowadays, consumers/buyers attitudes, behaviors and purchasing habits

are changing—and many of these new ways will remain post-pandemic. While

the most fundamental necessities are presently the focus of purchases,

consumers are becoming more conscious shoppers, supporting local

businesses, and embracing online shopping. Consumers are connecting,

learning, and playing online to combat isolation, and they will keep doing so. As

more people choose to work from home, the virtual workforce will grow in the

coming years (Wright & Blackburn, 2020). Since the 1930’s, markets attempt to

understand the consumers’ purchasing behavior (Waguespack & Hyman, 1993)

to predict the customers’ actions and future purchases (Srivastava & Barmola,

2010). However, during the last few decades, the retail industry has undergone

great development. Different channels were created that made the customers act

differently. In the 21st century, new options for buying and shopping rather than

the brick-and-mortar stores were developed and been available for the

customers (Reinartz & Imschloß, 2017). Numerous studies have shown that

consumer behavior changes during critical periods, such as COVID-19, as a

result of both the danger that customer’s face and the technology's rapid

progress. In order to be successful and ahead of the competition, businesses

must always understand what their customers want (and will need to invest
 Republic of the Philippines
SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business Administration and Hospitality Management
Tacurong Campus, City of Tacurong

heavily in research and development to do this). Customers will purchase

products from rival companies if they don't develop and offer what customers

want, making the company unable to thrive (Lintha et al, 2019).

Consumer buying behavior is the study of the ways of buying and

disposing of goods, services, ideas or experiences by the individuals, groups and

organizations in order to satisfy their needs and wants (Kotler & Keller, 2011).

Consumer is the study “of the processes involved when individuals or groups

select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to

satisfy needs and desires (Solomon et al, 1995). Consumer buying behaviour is

as a set of activities which involves the purchase and use of goods and services

which resulted from the customers’ emotional and mental needs and behavioural

responses (Stallworth, 2008). It is further stated that the process may contain

different activities and stages (Gabbot & Hogg, 1998).

The world as we know it has been drastically altered by the COVID-19

epidemic. People are behaving, shopping, and, in many ways, thinking,

differently. We've put supply chains to the test. Shops are shutting their doors.

Global consumers are approaching products and businesses with a fresh

perspective. The virus is quickly accelerating long-term underlying trends in only

a few weeks, altering the consumer products industry in real time (Wright &

Blackburn, 2020). The pandemic was a reason for changing the customer

behaviour toward a new way of purchasing that rarely existed in the past (Laato

et al., 2020). However, the present customer shopping experience impacts the
 Republic of the Philippines
SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business Administration and Hospitality Management
Tacurong Campus, City of Tacurong

future customer behaviour towards specific changes and adjustments (Rita et al.,

2019). The new way of behaving and acting that customers adopt during crisis

influence their traditional purchasing behaviour, which is bequeathed to the

following generations (Duquenne & Vlontzos, 2013).

It is obvious that firms stand to gain significantly over the long run from a

better understanding of consumer purchasing behavior through research and

identification of their needs. However, as noted by Kotler et al. (2005), it is

important to note that despite significant attempts to learn about and understand

consumers' purchasing patterns, it is highly challenging to pinpoint the precise

reasons why a consumer chooses one product or service over another. This is

due to the fact that consumers occasionally base their purchases on emotional

ideas that they themselves may not be fully aware of.

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of COVID-19

pandemic on Tacurongnons consumer purchasing bevahior. Ali (2020) asserts

that given the widespread usage of the internet and the COVID-19 restrictions,

Iran's purchasing habits have shifted more in favor of online shopping. According

to Gu, Slusarczyk, Hajizada, Kovalyova, Sakhbieva (2021), online supermarket

visits increased, according to an analysis of web traffic during the coronavirus

outbreak. This result demonstrated how dedicated internet buyers are to regular

shopping. Thus, the epidemic encouraged online customers to display a

consistency in their purchasing patterns. The results of the correlation research

showed a growing correlation between online buying behavior and traits of a

 Republic of the Philippines
SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business Administration and Hospitality Management
Tacurong Campus, City of Tacurong

reflexive customer. Additionally, there was a tendency for the analyzed factors'

association to becoming stronger.

Several studies have done internationally (e.g. Ali (2020), Gu, Slusarczyk,

Hajizada, Kovalyova, Sakhbieva (2021), Pirc Barčić, Kitek Kuzman, Vergot,

Grošelj (2021)), however there are limited studies about the impact of COVID-19

to the consumers purchasing behavior nationally and locally. This paper helps fill

this gap with its contribution with the literature.

The paper continues as follows Section 2 provides a review of related

literature. Section 3 discusses the methodology used to obtain the research data.

Section 4 describes the data and presents the result as well as discuss the

implications of the results and Section 5 provides summary, conclusions as well

as recommendations for future researchers.

Statement of the Problem

The developments in the retail sector led to significant changes in

customer behavior and evident transition of the customer activities toward the

online channels. Correspondingly, the pandemic of Covid-19 have come without

any previous notice and dictated new regulation that has hindered the social

interaction. These hindrances led to numerous consequences on both online and

physical channels. This study generally sought to determine the factors,

especially during COVID-19, that affect the behavioral changes of consumers in

Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat.

 Republic of the Philippines
SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business Administration and Hospitality Management
Tacurong Campus, City of Tacurong

Specifically, it attempted to respond the following questions:

1. What are the socio-demographic profile of the respondents in terms of:

a. Age

b. Sex

c. Price

d. Product

e. Place

f. Promotion

g. Shopping Platform

i. Online Stores

ii. Offline Stores

2. What is the consumers purchasing behavior before the COVID-19

Pandemic?

3. What is the consumers purchasing behavior during the COVID-19

Pandemic?

4. What is the significant difference between the consumers purchasing

behavior before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework in Figure 1 served as the authors' guide

throughout this investigation, “the conceptual framework is the foundation on

 Republic of the Philippines
SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business Administration and Hospitality Management
Tacurong Campus, City of Tacurong

which the entire research project is based on” (Williamson, 2002, p. 58). Based

on the theoretical framework, this paper proposes a conceptual model concerned

with the consumers purchase behavior before and during COVID-19 Pandemic.

As stated above, consumer purchase behavior refers to the behavior that

consumers display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing

of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs (Schiffman,

2007).

The concept, which is adopted from Abou Jeb & Choura (2021), has

identified three factors that affect consumer purchasing behavior. The categories

are as follows: offline influences, which encourage people to choose offline

channels when they are making purchases; online influences, which encourage

people to choose online retailers for their purchases; and COVID-19 related

factors, which refers to the factors concerned with the restrictions of the Covid-19

outbreak and have co-occurred.

 Republic of the Philippines
SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business Administration and Hospitality Management
Tacurong Campus, City of Tacurong

COVID-19
RELATED
FACTORS

ONLINE OFFLINE
INFLUENCES INFLUENCES

CONSUMER
PURCHASE
BEHAVIOR

ONLINE OFFLINE
STORES STORES

Figure 1. The Conceptual Framework of the Study

Hypothesis

The following null hypothesis will be tested based on the 0.05 level of

significance:
 Republic of the Philippines
SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business Administration and Hospitality Management
Tacurong Campus, City of Tacurong

1. There is no significant difference between the purchasing behavior of the

consumer before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Significance of the Study

The study's findings may add to our understanding of the variables that

influence consumer behavior in crisis situations. This will give information on how

business owners and sellers should respond to market shifts and what tactics

they should use to increase profits in spite of outside influences.

To the Marketers. The result can be used as a reference on how to

handle the changes of purchasing behavior of the consumers during COVID-19

pandemic and use it as an advantage to create strategies.

To the Future Researchers. The research study can help future

researchers to have another reference or basis for related studies. They may

also use this to investigate more on the same problem presented in this study.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

The scope and limitation of this study primarily focused on knowing the

changes of purchasing behavior of the consumers, how it can affect the

businesses, and the tactics in coping up with these changes. The scope of this
 Republic of the Philippines
SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business Administration and Hospitality Management
Tacurong Campus, City of Tacurong

study is limited to the Generation Z’s buying behavior; however, this study will not

be observing any other customer segments rather than the Generation Z residing

in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat where the research was conducted.

Furthermore, to get a higher sufficient data, the study has limited the data

collection on the Filipino Generation Z living in Tacurong City before and during

the pandemic of Covid-19. More precisely, the data collection has been limited to

those living in Tacurong before the outbreak of Covid-19.

Moreover, the scope of this study is limited to fashion retailing only, where

these retailers are concerned with products such as clothes, footwears, and

accessories. Other products such as cosmetics and care products are excluded

in this study. Additionally, other kinds of retailers out of the fashion industry are

also excluded from this study.

 Republic of the Philippines
SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business Administration and Hospitality Management
Tacurong Campus, City of Tacurong

References

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Gu, S., Ślusarczyk, B., Hajizada, S., Kovalyova, I., & Sakhbieva, A. (2021). Impact of the covid-19

pandemic on online consumer purchasing behavior. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic

Commerce Research, 16(6), 2263-2281.

Choura, A., & Abou Jeb, S. (2021). The Impact of Covid-19 on the Change of Customer Buying

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Pirc Barčić, A., Kitek Kuzman, M., Vergot, T., & Grošelj, P. (2021). Monitoring consumer

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 Republic of the Philippines
SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business Administration and Hospitality Management
Tacurong Campus, City of Tacurong

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SULTAN KUDARAT STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Business Administration and Hospitality Management
Tacurong Campus, City of Tacurong

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