The Role of Online Shopping in the Republic of Serbia During COVID-19
Main Article Content
Abstract
This paper investigates the role of online shopping during severe COVID-19. The main aim is to see whether this virus and implemented measures of reducing the spread of contagion brought by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, resulted with changes in consumer behaviour. The data was collected from 408 respondents from the Republic of Serbia using an online questionnaire. The questionnaire lasted from 07th April until 04th May. Data were analysed using the Chi-Square test. Results of this study revealed that there is a significant association between purchasing online before and after the appearance of the COVID-19. Also, the authors conclude that there is no significant association between gender and the decision to purchase after the appearance of the COVID-19. The main three motives for online shopping in the period during COVID-19 were that too many stores are working only online, reducing health risk, and saving time. The most frequently online bought products by the respondents, were Food (groceries), Medicines and Books (magazines, newspapers). The contribution of this paper, even though the analysed sample is not national representative, lays in the fact that there is almost none research of this topic in our country.
Article Details
Section
Once the manuscript is accepted for publication, authors shall transfer the copyright to the publisher. If the submitted manuscript is not accepted for printing by the journal, the authors shall retain all their rights. The following rights on the manuscript are transferred to the publisher, including any supplementary materials and any parts, extracts or elements of the manuscript:
- the right to reproduce and distribute the manuscript in printed form, including print-on-demand;
- the right to print prepublications, reprints and special editions of the manuscript;
- the right to translate the manuscript into other languages;
- the right to reproduce the manuscript using photomechanical or similar means including, but not limited to photocopy, and the right to distribute these copies;
- the right to reproduce and distribute the manuscript electronically or optically using and all data carriers or storage media, and especially in machine readable/digitalized form on data carriers such as hard drive, CD-ROM, DVD, Blu-ray Disc (BD), Mini Disc, data tapes, and the right to reproduce and distribute the article via these data carriers;
- the right to store the manuscript in databases, including online databases, as well as the right to transmit the manuscript in all technical systems and modes;
- the right to make the manuscript available to the public or to closed user groups on individual demand, for use on monitors or other readers (including e-books), and in printable form for the user, either via the Internet, online service, or via internal or external networks.
References
Chen, Z., Dubinsky, A. (2003). "A Conceptual Model of Perceived Customer Value in E-Commerce: A Preliminary Investigation" Psychology & Marketing. 20 pp. 323 – 347.
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (2020). https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en
Eurostat (2020). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/home
Forster, P., Tang, Y. (2005). "The Role of Online Shopping and Fulfillment in the Hong Kong SARS Crisis" Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, p. 271
Government of the Republic of Serbia (2020). https://www.srbija.gov.rs/
Hedin, J., Jonsson, M. and Ljunggren, J. (2006). "Delivery performance: How to define & measure delivery performance in a triadic relationship". Master thesis School of Management and Economics
Hennig-Thurau, T., Gwinner, K., Walsh, G. and Gremler, D. (2003). "Electronic Word of Mouth: Motives for and Consequences of Reading Customer Articulations on the Internet". International Journal of Electronic Commerce. 4. pp. 51-74.
Hootsuite (2019). Social Media Audience. https://hootsuite.com/
Jung, H., Park, M., Hong, K. and Hyun, E. (2016). "The Impact of an Epidemic Outbreak on Consumer Expenditures: An Empirical Assessment for MERS Korea". Sustainability. 8. p. 454.
Kumar, V. & Dange, U. (2012). "A Study of Factors Affecting Online Buying Behavior: A Conceptual Model". SSRN Electronic Journal.
Li, N. and Zhang, P. (2002). "Consumer Online Shopping Attitudes and Behavior: An Assessment of Research". Electronic Commerce Customer Relationship Management. pp. 508-517
Lohse, G.L. and Spiller, P. (1998) "Electronic Shopping". Communications of the ACM. 41. pp. 81-87.
Merriam Webster. (2020). https://www.merriam-webster.com/
Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia COVID-19. https://covid19.rs/homepage-english/
Norjihan A.G. and Zailani M. S. (2009). "Personal Information Privacy Protection in E-Commerce". WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications. 3. pp. 407-416.
Singh, J., Sirdeshmukh, D. (2000). "Agency and trust mechanisms in consumer satisfaction and loyalty judgments". Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 28. pp. 150–167.
Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (2020). https://www.stat.gov.rs/en-US/
Statistics of COVID-19 in the Republic of Serbia (2020) https://covid19.data.gov.rs
US Department of Commerce (1999). https://www.commerce.gov/
Vasic N., Kilibarda M. and Kaurin T. (2019). "The Influence of Online Shopping Determinants on Customer Satisfaction in the Serbian Market". Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research.14(2). pp. 70-89
World Health Organization (2020). https://www.who.int/