Substantial Changes in Consumer Buying Behaviour in the Post-COVID-19 World

Ever since the emergence of the COVID-19 crisis, the world has seen immense changes, as have consumers’ attitudes and behaviours towards their purchasing decisions. Consumers have become more mindful and are making more intuitive choices while purchasing; minimalism and deliberate decision-making are the new normal in consumer buying behaviour. This chapter focuses on understanding how resilience has differed across various segments of customers and how perceptions of purchase decisions have changed. It also attempts to analyze whether or not brand loyalty among customers while making a purchase decision has been impacted. With the help of primary and secondary data analyses, the study suggests that the resilience or capacity to bounce back to pre-pandemic buying behaviour varies among customers depending on their personal experiences with the pandemic and various other demographic factors. In addition, among many consumers, the levels of desire have decreased, and more focus is now on making buying decisions which support a happy and healthy lifestyle, thus reducing materialism and justifying a minimalistic approach to buying. On the other hand, brand loyalty across customers has also been influenced by the pandemic since customers have become more flexible and adaptable to accept other brands, as the scarcity of goods during the pandemic times resulted in substitutions in consumption, thus making consumers less brand-driven and more flexible to accept other brands in order to satisfy their needs. Hence, the research offers insight into consumers’ adaptability and acceptance of changing scenarios due to COVID-19 and their behavioural changes towards buying decisions.