COVID-19 Might Finally Accelerate the Growth of Online Shopping & Change People’s Habits

If you could go 60 years back in time and tell your grandma that we’d be ordering food from glass screens the size of our hands in the future, she’d first ask who the hell you are before running away and calling the police.

But things are changing, and the Covid-19 outbreak could accelerate that change.

COVID-19 Might Finally Accelerate the Growth of Online Shopping & Change People’s Habits

We’re all used to buying our books and even electronics online, but we still buy our meat and vegetables from the supermarket.

But with one-third of the population on lockdown and a coronavirus spreading like wildfire out there, going out for a supermarket run isn’t exactly at the top of everyone’s to-do list.

That’s why many are choosing to do their grocery shopping online instead.

According to CNN, 4% of grocery sales last year in the United States came online. But since the Covid-19 outbreak, downloads of Instacart, Walmart’s grocery app, and Shipt increased 218%, 160%, and 124% respectively last Sunday compared with a year prior.

And it’s not just the younger generation who’ve made the switch.

“We are seeing a larger percentage of customers over the age of 60 that are coming online,” said one chief e-commerce officer in the US.

Moreover, according to a Coronavirus Impact Survey, 95% of people across APAC (including Australia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and more) said they have purchased something online in the last two weeks and 46% say they will shift more purchases online.

So, even after the Covid-19 crisis is over, people may continue to do most of their shopping online.

“Consumer behaviors always shift in times of disaster,” said Doug Baker, vice president of industry relations at FMI, a trade group for food retailers. “People are learning new skills and how to shop online as a result of what we’re experiencing today.”

You see, as people become used to the routine of staying indoors – either unable to continue working or working from home – there is likely to be a greater need for certain items that revolve around being at home.

This includes items that could enable you to telecommute or to keep yourself entertained while indoors.

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Changes in other behaviours

It’s not just our consumer behaviour that could change, though.

“Handshaking may already be a thing of the past,” says Pamela Paresky, an author and visiting social sciences lecturer at the University of Chicago.

You see, after months and months of social distancing and increased care over personal hygiene, people might stop engaging in practices that came so naturally to us before the pandemic.

As Cnet reports, even after the Covid-19 crisis is over, we may remain nervous about greeting friends with a hug and may never again leave home without hand sanitizer.

Yes, this sounds like something out of a science fiction novel. But change is the only constant, and when we experience such a huge shock to our system, the only way to move forward is to adapt to the situation.

I just hope supermarkets actually run out of toilet paper so people will change their butt-cleaning habits as well.