COVID-19: The Impact on Global Buyer Behavior

It’s no secret that COVID-19 has affected everyday life for individuals around the world. People and businesses are adjusting to a new normal unlike anything they’ve experienced in the past. With non-essential businesses being forced to close their doors and stay-at-home orders in place until at least the end of April, consumers are turning to online shopping to fulfill their needs. 

We found that buyer behavior has changed in different ways globally. Retailers, in general, experienced a surge in online purchases in the first quarter of 2020, even with the spread of the pandemic. 

Let’s Look at the COVID-19 Data

To get an in-depth understanding of how global buyer behavior has been affected by the pandemic, we aggregated data from our client database of 200+ retailers situated on 6 continents to bring you COVID-19: The Impact on Global Buyer Behavior.

In this report, we share our latest insights, starting with the initial impact to the global apparel e-commerce business. We also present our observations on purchasing behaviors and projections that will affect apparel returns for both e-commerce and omni-channel retailers.

3 Interesting Consumer Behavior Facts

Our eBook highlights consumer behavior changes around the world. The three findings below show the significant impact COVID-19 has made on buying behavior:

1. Despite a widespread global transmission of COVID-19 in the first quarter, we saw a 27% increase in overall purchases compared to 2019.
2. The percentage of orders with multiple sizes of the same item declined by 15% in 2020 compared to the first quarter of last year. This could foreshadow a positive impact on costly apparel returns. 
3. Omni-channel retailers experienced a steady decline in online purchases in January and February, which is in line with 2019 – but at a steeper rate. Whereas e-commerce only retailers maintained flat purchase trends until March, where we saw a significant decrease.

For a more in-depth analysis and additional key statistics about how consumer buying behavior has been affected by the pandemic, download a free copy of COVID-19: The Impact on Global Buyer Behavior.