The Use of Social Media and Its Impact on Shopping Behavior of Slovak and Italian Consumers during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The coronavirus crisis hit the world and affected all aspects of our lives, including consumers’ habits, preferences, and shopping behaviors. The survey, which involved 937 respondents from two countries, examined how the pandemic affected shopping behavior and consumer preferences in Italy and Slovakia. This paper aims to explore the impact of social media on consumer behavior, more specifically, it examines the influence of social media on the preference of specific e-shops during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used to determine a statistically significant relationship between the variables and the Mann–Whitney U test and the Kruskal–Wallis H test to assess the significance of differences between respondents in terms of demographic characteristics (residence, age, and gender). The results revealed the existence of statistically significant differences in the use of social media during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of various demographic factors as well as a relatively weak relationship between the social media used and the purchase in the e-shop promoted on the social media.

Impact of internet usage on consumer impulsive buying behavior of agriculture products: Moderating role of personality traits and emotional intelligence

“…The coronavirus epidemic had a significant effect on online sales, especially over the weekend (COVID-19). Thus, the adoption of the contemporary technology tools using internet has shown a significant importance in changing consumer behavior in China ( Ali Taha et al, 2021 ).…”

Can Social Media Be a Tool for Increasing Tourists’ Environmentally Responsible Behavior?

“…Some researcher for example, Abbas et al (2019) found the negative impact of using social media of student learning behavior. Taha et al (2021) showed a significant difference in use of SM during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic which may impact on consumer behavior. However, the study showed that social media has significant influence on raising EA and generating PA to mass tourists' which significantly impact to tourists' ERB.…”

“…Tourists may respond to environmental stimuli by developing subjective awareness about their entire tourism experience. The consumer then chooses whether to continue using the service or not (Taha et al, 2021). Tourists are more prone to adopt social media-related habits than visitors who have less integration and knowledge of the environment (Javed et al, 2020).…”

Social media marketing influence on Boutique Hotel customers’ purchase intention in Malaysia

“…Social media is having a substantial impact on consumers' purchase behaviour. Millennials are currently the most populous generation globally (Taha, Pencarelli, Škerháková, Fedorko, & Košíková , 2021) and represent the highest-spending generation in 2020 -with a projected $1.4 trillion (Kasasa, 2021). Generation Y is the newcomer both in the workplace and visitors category.…”