Exploration of Changes in Consumers' Purchasing Behaviors in the Covid-19 Pandemic Process

The Covid-19 epidemic, which was detected for the first time in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and spread all over the world in a very short time, has deeply affected all areas of human life due to its results. The pandemic has also caused changes in people's purchasing behaviors. Consumers, acting with anxiety and fear of scarcity, have unusually made purchases in quantities much higher than the amount of goods they purchase under normal conditions, causing depletion of stocks and disruptions in the supply chain. This type of buying behavior, which is generally seen in crisis periods, is described as panic buying behavior in the literature. The aim of this study is to examine the changes in the purchasing behavior of consumers during the Covid-19 epidemic, which is seen as one of the crisis periods. The data needed for the research were obtained through the online questionnaire and the participation of 318 subjects. With the collected data, explanatory factor analyzes and confirmatory factor analyzes were performed in order to verify the research model that was created and to test the hypotheses put forward, and the structural equation model was used to test the research model. According to the findings obtained from the research; It was determined that perceived scarcity had an effect on anxiety and panic buying behavior. In addition, as a result of the analyzes made, it was seen that the feeling of anxiety had an effect on the panic buying behavior.