EFFECT OF COVID-19 ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR

ABSTRACT

Knowledge on how consumers behave and what factors influence them enables companies to manage the marketing mix, branding and communicate more effectively with customers. Past studies have been on the measures to control COVID-19 and the impact on the economy without considering the effect on consumer buying behaviour. The study therefore tries to bridge the gap by examining the effect of COVID-19 on consumer behaviour in Edo South, Edo State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study describe the socio-economic characteristics of the consumers, examine respondents’ buying behaviour in the pre and post Covid-19 eras and identify the Covid-19 related constraints that hinders respondents’ from accessing agro-products in the study area. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 120 respondents for the study. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire and was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as means, frequency counts, and percentages. The hypothesis of the study was tested using inferential statistic, Mann Whitney U Test at 5% level of significance.