Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 69, 2022 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103089
Accepted author manuscript, 1.79 MB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC-ND: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The impact of COVID-19 on the evolution of online retail
T2 - The pandemic as a window of opportunity
AU - Szász, Levente
AU - Bálint, Csaba
AU - Csíki, Ottó
AU - Nagy, Bálint Zsolt
AU - Rácz, Béla-Gergely
AU - Csala, Dénes
AU - Harris, Lloyd C.
N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 69, 2022 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103089
PY - 2022/11/30
Y1 - 2022/11/30
N2 - Pandemic-related shocks have induced an unexpected volatility into the evolution of online sales, making it difficult for retailers to cope with frequently occurring, drastic changes in demand. Relying on a socio-technical approach, the purpose of this paper is to (a) offer a deeper insight into the driving forces of online sales during the pandemic, and (b) investigate whether pandemic-related shocks accelerate the long-term growth of online retail. Novel, high-frequency data on GPS-based population mobility and government stringency is used to demonstrate how time spent in residential areas and governmental restrictions drive the monthly evolution of online sales in 23 countries. We deconstruct these effects into three main phases: lure-in, lock-in, and phase-out. Lastly, using time series analysis, we show that the pandemic has induced a level shift into the long-term growth trend of the online retail sector in the majority of countries investigated.
AB - Pandemic-related shocks have induced an unexpected volatility into the evolution of online sales, making it difficult for retailers to cope with frequently occurring, drastic changes in demand. Relying on a socio-technical approach, the purpose of this paper is to (a) offer a deeper insight into the driving forces of online sales during the pandemic, and (b) investigate whether pandemic-related shocks accelerate the long-term growth of online retail. Novel, high-frequency data on GPS-based population mobility and government stringency is used to demonstrate how time spent in residential areas and governmental restrictions drive the monthly evolution of online sales in 23 countries. We deconstruct these effects into three main phases: lure-in, lock-in, and phase-out. Lastly, using time series analysis, we show that the pandemic has induced a level shift into the long-term growth trend of the online retail sector in the majority of countries investigated.
KW - Online retail
KW - e-commerce
KW - Multi-level perspective
KW - Mobility
KW - Government stringency
U2 - 10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103089
DO - 10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103089
M3 - Journal article
VL - 69
JO - Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
JF - Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
SN - 0969-6989
M1 - 103089
ER -