CONSUMER ONLINE BUYING BEHAVIOR DURING COVID-19 IN KLANG VALLEY MALAYSIA

Abstract

In early 2020, the world was hit by a global crisis, in the form of a COVID-19 pandemic. This has resulted in panic shopping practices in shops, vacant store shelves, out of stocks, and a huge rise in online sales. The changing customer purchasing behavior has demanded the adaptation of sellers, manufacturers, advertisers, and businesses. Economic factors have been found in previous research to be the most important factors in the process of consumer decision making, especially increased product price sensitivity, affects consumers in situations of crisis. The aim of this study was to investigate, in addition to panic purchased behavior, whether consumers' behavior in online shopping changed during COVID-19. Various studies have been done both in the global and local perspective to research on consumer online buying behavior during COVID-19. However, the focus of research on the factors that influenced consumer online buying behavior in Malaysia is still limited, and therefore this research project aims to fill this contextual gap. The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of economic, personal, psychological and social factors on consumer online buying behavior during COVID-19 among Klang Valley shoppers Malaysia. The Theory of Howard-Sheth and Kotler behavioral selection were discussed, and a conceptual framework was designed to illustrate the relationship between economic, personal, psychological and, social factors on consumer online buying behavior during COVID-19 in Klang Valley Malaysia. Four hypotheses have been elaborated and explored on the basis of the literature review. Data from 320 respondents via an online questionnaire were analyzed for this research and Hypotheses were evaluated through multi-regressive testing. Results from the hypotheses testing showed that economic, personal and, psychological factors have a significant relationship and positive influence on consumer buying behavior while social factors does not have a significant and positive influence Klang Valley shoppers online buying behavior during COVID-19.