IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i3p1464-d490269.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of COVID-19 on the Customer End of Retail Supply Chains: A Big Data Analysis of Consumer Satisfaction

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Brandtner

    (School of Business & Management, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, 4400 Steyr, Austria)

  • Farzaneh Darbanian

    (School of Business & Management, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, 4400 Steyr, Austria)

  • Taha Falatouri

    (School of Business & Management, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, 4400 Steyr, Austria)

  • Chibuzor Udokwu

    (School of Business & Management, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, 4400 Steyr, Austria)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the biggest disruptive events of recent decades and has had a global effect on society and the economy. The political regulations resulting from COVID-19 also led to significant changes in physical grocery shopping. However, the specific impact of COVID-19 on consumer satisfaction at the customer end of retail supply chains, i.e., the point-of-sale (PoS), has not yet been addressed. By gathering and analyzing consumer satisfaction data (ratings) and sentiments (evaluation comments) available on the open web, the current study evaluates the impact of COVID-19 on consumer satisfaction at the PoS. Focusing on the five biggest retail chains in Austria, the results show that there was a general and significant decline in consumer satisfaction due to the pandemic. The results also show a high impact of political regulations on consumer satisfaction. Furthermore, the text-mining based analysis of evaluation comments indicate that store layout and facilities, as well as product availability and waiting time had a great impact on consumer satisfaction. In total, over 533,000 consumer satisfaction ratings and over 153,000 textual comments have been analyzed, providing the basis for a comprehensive and sound discussion of the impact of COVID-19 on consumer satisfaction and perceptions. Future research could focus on applying the used data analysis technique and the adapted consumer sentiment dimensions in different settings, such as countries other than Austria or smaller retail chains.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Brandtner & Farzaneh Darbanian & Taha Falatouri & Chibuzor Udokwu, 2021. "Impact of COVID-19 on the Customer End of Retail Supply Chains: A Big Data Analysis of Consumer Satisfaction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-18, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:1464-:d:490269
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1464/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1464/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dmitry Ivanov & Alexandre Dolgui, 2019. "Low-Certainty-Need (LCN) supply chains: a new perspective in managing disruption risks and resilience," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(15-16), pages 5119-5136, August.
    2. Hartzel, Kathleen S. & Wood, Charles A., 2017. "Factors that affect the improvement of demand forecast accuracy through point-of-sale reporting," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 260(1), pages 171-182.
    3. Jasper Grashuis & Theodoros Skevas & Michelle S. Segovia, 2020. "Grocery Shopping Preferences during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-10, July.
    4. Engler, Tobias H. & Winter, Patrick & Schulz, Michael, 2015. "Understanding online product ratings: A customer satisfaction model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 113-120.
    5. Peter Dannenberg & Martina Fuchs & Tim Riedler & Cathrin Wiedemann, 2020. "Digital Transition by COVID‐19 Pandemic? The German Food Online Retail," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 111(3), pages 543-560, July.
    6. Valeria Borsellino & Sina Ahmadi Kaliji & Emanuele Schimmenti, 2020. "COVID-19 Drives Consumer Behaviour and Agro-Food Markets towards Healthier and More Sustainable Patterns," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-26, October.
    7. Xuanming Su, 2009. "Consumer Returns Policies and Supply Chain Performance," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 595-612, March.
    8. Tarek Ben Hassen & Hamid El Bilali & Mohammad S. Allahyari, 2020. "Impact of COVID-19 on Food Behavior and Consumption in Qatar," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-18, August.
    9. Dmitry Ivanov & Alexandre Dolgui & Ajay Das & Boris Sokolov, 2019. "Digital Supply Chain Twins: Managing the Ripple Effect, Resilience, and Disruption Risks by Data-Driven Optimization, Simulation, and Visibility," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Dmitry Ivanov & Alexandre Dolgui & Boris Sokolov (ed.), Handbook of Ripple Effects in the Supply Chain, pages 309-332, Springer.
    10. Lee, Kiljae & Yu, Chunyan, 2018. "Assessment of airport service quality: A complementary approach to measure perceived service quality based on Google reviews," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 28-44.
    11. Tiaojun Xiao & Jing Shi, 2016. "Consumer returns reduction and information revelation mechanism for a supply chain," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 240(2), pages 661-681, May.
    12. Na Hao & H. Holly Wang & Qingjie Zhou, 2020. "The impact of online grocery shopping on stockpile behavior in Covid-19," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(3), pages 459-470, August.
    13. Guo, Yue & Barnes, Stuart J. & Jia, Qiong, 2017. "Mining meaning from online ratings and reviews: Tourist satisfaction analysis using latent dirichlet allocation," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 467-483.
    14. Marshall Fisher & Ananth Raman, 2018. "Using Data and Big Data in Retailing," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 27(9), pages 1665-1669, September.
    15. Islam, Tahir & Pitafi, Abdul Hameed & Arya, Vikas & Wang, Ying & Akhtar, Naeem & Mubarik, Shujaat & Xiaobei, Liang, 2021. "Panic buying in the COVID-19 pandemic: A multi-country examination," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    16. Boone, Tonya & Ganeshan, Ram & Jain, Aditya & Sanders, Nada R., 2019. "Forecasting sales in the supply chain: Consumer analytics in the big data era," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 170-180.
    17. Ellen Goddard, 2020. "The impact of COVID‐19 on food retail and food service in Canada: Preliminary assessment," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 68(2), pages 157-161, June.
    18. Lucini, Filipe R. & Tonetto, Leandro M. & Fogliatto, Flavio S. & Anzanello, Michel J., 2020. "Text mining approach to explore dimensions of airline customer satisfaction using online customer reviews," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jelena Končar & Radenko Marić & Goran Vukmirović & Sonja Vučenović, 2021. "Sustainability of Food Placement in Retailing during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, May.
    2. Dan-Cristian Dabija & Veronica Câmpian & Anna-Rebeka Pop & Raluca Bãbu?, 2022. "Generating loyalty towards fast fashion stores: a cross-generational approach based on store attributes and socio-environmental responsibility," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 13(3), pages 891-934, September.
    3. Nishant Saravanan & Jessica Olivares-Aguila & Alejandro Vital-Soto, 2022. "Bibliometric and Text Analytics Approaches to Review COVID-19 Impacts on Supply Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-33, November.
    4. Çiğdem Sıcakyüz, 2023. "Analyzing Healthcare and Wellness Products’ Quality Embedded in Online Customer Reviews: Assessment with a Hybrid Fuzzy LMAW and Fermatean Fuzzy WASPAS Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-41, February.
    5. Karolina Werner-Lewandowsk & Piotr Lubinski & Jolanta Sloniec, 2021. "The Effect of Covid-19 on Consumer Behavior in Poland - Preliminary Research Results," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 2), pages 405-416.
    6. Ahmet Yağmur Ersoy & Metin Saygılı & Mustafa İlteriş Yılmaz & Mustafa Emre Uslu & İhsan Hakan Selvi, 2022. "Consumer Sentiment in Turkey, from Closure to the New Normal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-24, July.
    7. Łukasz Gębski, 2021. "The Impact of the Crisis Triggered by the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Actions of Regulators on the Consumer Finance Market in Poland and Other European Union Countries," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-15, June.
    8. Stanca, Liana & Dabija, Dan-Cristian & Câmpian, Veronica, 2023. "Qualitative analysis of customer behavior in the retail industry during the COVID-19 pandemic: A word-cloud and sentiment analysis approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Katarina Valaskova & Pavol Durana & Peter Adamko, 2021. "Changes in Consumers’ Purchase Patterns as a Consequence of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(15), pages 1-17, July.
    10. C. Michael Hall & Peter Fieger & Girish Prayag & David Dyason, 2021. "Panic Buying and Consumption Displacement during COVID-19: Evidence from New Zealand," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-13, April.
    11. Li, Xinwei & Xu, Mao & Zeng, Wenjuan & Tse, Ying Kei & Chan, Hing Kai, 2023. "Exploring customer concerns on service quality under the COVID-19 crisis: A social media analytics study from the retail industry," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jelena Končar & Radenko Marić & Goran Vukmirović & Sonja Vučenović, 2021. "Sustainability of Food Placement in Retailing during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, May.
    2. Fildes, Robert & Ma, Shaohui & Kolassa, Stephan, 2022. "Retail forecasting: Research and practice," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1283-1318.
    3. Cruz-Cárdenas, Jorge & Zabelina, Ekaterina & Guadalupe-Lanas, Jorge & Palacio-Fierro, Andrés & Ramos-Galarza, Carlos, 2021. "COVID-19, consumer behavior, technology, and society: A literature review and bibliometric analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    4. Mostafa Ghodsi & Ali Ardestani & Arash Rasaizadi & Seyednaser Ghadamgahi & Hao Yang, 2021. "How COVID-19 Pandemic Affected Urban Trips? Structural Interpretive Model of Online Shopping and Passengers Trips during the Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-15, October.
    5. Lingfei Wang & Yuqin Yang & Guoyan Wang, 2022. "The Clean Your Plate Campaign: Resisting Table Food Waste in an Unstable World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-17, April.
    6. Duong, Quang Huy & Zhou, Li & Meng, Meng & Nguyen, Truong Van & Ieromonachou, Petros & Nguyen, Duy Tiep, 2022. "Understanding product returns: A systematic literature review using machine learning and bibliometric analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    7. Ahani, Ali & Nilashi, Mehrbakhsh & Yadegaridehkordi, Elaheh & Sanzogni, Louis & Tarik, A. Rashid & Knox, Kathy & Samad, Sarminah & Ibrahim, Othman, 2019. "Revealing customers’ satisfaction and preferences through online review analysis: The case of Canary Islands hotels," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 331-343.
    8. Mukesh Kumar & Rakesh D. Raut & Mahak Sharma & Vikas Kumar Choubey & Sanjoy Kumar Paul, 2022. "Enablers for resilience and pandemic preparedness in food supply chain," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 1198-1223, December.
    9. Bożena Kusz & Lucyna Witek & Dariusz Kusz & Katarzyna Chudy-Laskowska & Paulina Ostyńska & Alina Walenia, 2023. "The Effect of COVID-19 on Food Consumers’ Channel Purchasing Behaviors: An Empirical Study from Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, March.
    10. Guangyong Yang & Guojun Ji & Kim Hua Tan, 2022. "Impact of artificial intelligence adoption on online returns policies," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 308(1), pages 703-726, January.
    11. Kateryna Lysenko-Ryba & Dominik Zimon, 2021. "Customer Behavioral Reactions to Negative Experiences during the Product Return," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-14, January.
    12. Zaid Obeidat & Mohammad Ibrahim Obeidat, 2023. "A typology of Jordanian consumers after Covid‐19: The rational, the suspicious, and the cautious consumer," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 121-139, January.
    13. Beckers, Joris & Weekx, Simon & Beutels, Philippe & Verhetsel, Ann, 2021. "COVID-19 and retail: The catalyst for e-commerce in Belgium?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    14. Kumar, Avinash & Chakraborty, Shibashish & Bala, Pradip Kumar, 2023. "Text mining approach to explore determinants of grocery mobile app satisfaction using online customer reviews," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    15. Barakat, H. & Yeniterzi, R. & Martín-Domingo, L., 2021. "Applying deep learning models to twitter data to detect airport service quality," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    16. Guo, Jianxin & Jin, Songqing & Zhao, Jichun & Wang, Hongbiao & Zhao, Fang, 2022. "Has COVID-19 accelerated the E-commerce of agricultural products? Evidence from sales data of E-stores in China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    17. Katarina Valaskova & Pavol Durana & Peter Adamko, 2021. "Changes in Consumers’ Purchase Patterns as a Consequence of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(15), pages 1-17, July.
    18. Shraddha Mishra & Surya Prakash Singh, 2022. "A stochastic disaster-resilient and sustainable reverse logistics model in big data environment," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 319(1), pages 853-884, December.
    19. Tarek Ben Hassen & Hamid El Bilali & Mohammad S. Allahyari, 2020. "Impact of COVID-19 on Food Behavior and Consumption in Qatar," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-18, August.
    20. Strotmann, Christina & Baur, Vanessa & Börnert, Nora & Gerwin, Paula, 2022. "Generation and prevention of food waste in the German food service sector in the COVID-19 pandemic – Digital approaches to encounter the pandemic related crisis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:1464-:d:490269. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.