Challenges of COVID-19 on the e-commerce processes of a major retailer

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic altered consumer behaviour and accelerated the expansion of e-commerce. It has made a broad spectrum of products available to customers from their homes and allowed firms to keep operating despite restrictions. Although e-commerce and digitalization are a key area of business for most companies today, the impacts of COVID-19 were unexpected, and happened virtually overnight. The objective of this study was to investigate the impacts of the pandemic on online consumer behaviour and, consequently, the effects on the e-commerce processes of a major Finnish retailer. In addition, the research aims to get an understanding of the post-COVID prospects of e-commerce and online consumer behaviour. The aim of the empirical research is to answer the following research questions: How has the pandemic affected online consumer behaviour and the e-commerce processes of the company? What has changed? What measures have been taken? What are the post-pandemic expectations?

The empirical research was conducted as a qualitative case study. The data was collected through online semi-structured expert interviews with e-commerce specialists employed by the company, between February and May 2021. The data analysis was done using a thematic analysis method.

The results of this research indicate that, as a result of the surge in demand, e-commerce took a leap of several years and became the new normal. Many customers who had previously shied away from online shopping became acquainted with it and found new consuming habits. In addition, the general understanding of the importance of e-commerce and online shopping increased. Although it involved a considerable amount of work and strict schedules, solutions were implemented, and the development of processes was accelerated.