Shifting Trend of Customer Purchase Decision Within the Omni-channel Capability During the Pandemic

Customer purchase decision is a widely discussed agenda across industries. It is more relevant with respect to the highly competitive FMCG market. In this era of consumerism, it matters a lot to the marketers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it was evident that the FMCG market had changed from demand-driven scenario to supply-driven orientation. Time of delivery and price were no more the dominating factor for each occasion of such purchase. New purchase habit has emerged and the current study is an effort toward disclosing it. Omni-channel retailing has emerged as one of the popular strategies in the emerging era of digitization. This study has been conducted on the consumer in an attempt to analyze the change in the mode of purchase during the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact within Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Manipal districts. One of the major goals of the study is to gain deeper insights in the consumer purchase decision making during the unexpected scenario of pandemics from retailers. The study has revealed that the choice of distribution channel is highly contextual and not conceptual. Reaching consumers in the unexpected scenario of pandemic was not easy for every retailer. It has also shown the customer intention while purchasing in an omni-channel capabilities. Emphasizing on the factors determining those purchase intentions during the hard phase of pandemic. Therefore, traditional retailers should increase their online presence in an emerging omni-channel setup to cope up with the latest trend.