Pre-, During-, and Post-COVID-19 Era in Retailing

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic started as a health crisis; however, it dramatically generated social, economic, and behavioral changes. The transformations in business environment, shopping, and consumption behaviors are believed to be long-lasting after the pandemic era. Therefore, COVID-19 is a disruptive force. In this chapter, the authors analyzed the effects of COVID-19 on retailing industry as a result of changes in shopping behaviors. They discussed the evolution of multi-channel and omni-channel retailers, and they highlighted the changes in shopping behaviors due to COVID-19 on the basis of secondary data. Then they preceded a qualitative research and collected data via semi-structured in-depth interviews. They reported their findings in the last section of the chapter.