The effect of COVID-19 on small retail

Abstract

This paper aims to assess the effect of COVID-19 on small retail businesses in Alice Town, South Africa. The research methodology utilized includes the interpretivism paradigm, an exploratory research design and a qualitative research approach. The population included small business retail owners and or managers in Alice Town, South Africa. Purposive random sampling technique was utilized. The data was collected from owners/managers of small businesses using an in-depth semi-structured interview and analyzed through thematic content analysis. The findings indicated that COVID-19 negatively affected the performance of small businesses in South Africa. Whereas the study recommends the need for government to improve on the information dissemination strategy which will ensure information that relates to small business relief schemes in the country gets to the end-users.

Keywords

• corona virus disease
• covid-19
• small business
• raymond mhlaba