E-shopping decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh: The mediating role of consumers’ psychology

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally transformed consumer behavior on a global scale, and Bangladesh is no exception. The pandemic caused extraordinary disruptions in daily life, forcing consumers to rapidly adjust to a new normal characterized by lockdowns, social isolation, and limitations on physical mobility. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) brings greater changes in the consumer decision-making process across the globe. Factors affecting consumers’ electronic shopping (e-shopping) decisions may vary between pre and during the COVID-19 situation. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate the determinants of electronic shopping decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of Bangladesh, along with the role of consumers’ psychology as a mediator. Quantitative type research was applied, and the study used a descriptive research design. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect 543 data points from Bangladeshi consumers using an online purposive sampling method. A partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to evaluate the data and test the hypotheses. The results of the PLS-SEM method showed that electronic shopping decisions were significantly associated with consumers’ psychology, governmental, health, product, and payment factors. The results also revealed that consumers’ psychology significantly and positively mediates the relationship between three determinants (e.g., governmental, social, and product aspects) and electronic shopping decisions. The research recommends that managers, policymakers, and practitioners should provide special attention to the significant determinants of electronic shopping decisions and formulate relevant strategies to address the changes in consumer behavior brought by coronavirus disease.