The Impact of Mobility on Shopping Preferences during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Evidence from the Slovak Republic

Abstract

The COVID-19 global pandemic has affected normal human behaviour in day-to-day activities. As a result of various restrictions, people have significantly changed their shopping and mobility to limit the spread of the pandemic. This article aims to determine the association between consumers’ shopping preferences and the frequency of selected daily activities during and before the COVID-19 pandemic using correspondence analysis. The total sample consists of 407 respondents from Slovakia. The data are obtained from an online questionnaire divided into several sections such as socio-demographic factors, shopping preferences, and frequency of selected activities per week. The results show that there is an association between consumers’ preference for shopping in supermarkets and the frequency of family visits per week during the pandemic, among other factors. These findings follow up on previous studies on the consequences of changing mobility as a result of the global crisis.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• correspondence analysis
• mobility
• pandemic
• shopping preferences