The Impact of Pandemic Restrictions on Offline and Online Grocery Shopping Behavior - New Normal or Old Habits?

The pandemic is changing future trends in retailing and ecommerce immense. Recent research revealed a considerable increase in the use of online grocery shopping (OGS). However, less is known about whether consumers’ behavior is evolving to a ‘new normal’ or returning to ‘old habits’ after pandemic restrictions. To close this research gap, we operationalize and empirically analyze different purchase patterns of consumers in between offline and online channels before, during, and after lockdown restrictions in Germany. The findings show that some consumers refrained from brick-and-mortar retail during the lockdown, but returned after pandemic restrictions. They have lost virtually no consumers entirely to OGS. Therefore, the observed consumers are still in the range of offline retailers. Because of this, offline retailers should act now to retain their consumers, e.g. by offering competitive benefits in their stores or by adding an online channel. Our findings on OGS show much more differentiated purchase patterns. Some consumers start using OGS before or during lockdown, others quit using it. OGS providers should urgently analyze the churn of their customers and derive measures for customer retention. The fact that a total of 93% of the observed consumers do not practice OGS shows that OGS is still in its infancy.