Consumers' Orientation towards E-Commerce during Disruptive Times: Entrepreneurship Implications

Our study approaches consumers’ orientation towards e-commerce during disruptive times, taking the COVID-19 pandemic, the most prominent recent disruptive event, as a reference. The analysis of the phenomenon was targeted at two differently developed European countries, Romania and Germany, which were investigated. Considering the time span from January 2020 to January 2022, Google Trends was used to track the search volumes associated with the main e-commerce platforms in the analysed countries, serving as a proxy measure for gauging consumers’ orientation towards e-commerce. Based on sound sentiment and quantitative analyses, our study revealed no statistically significant correlation between consumers’ orientation towards e-commerce and the negativity of news in the media reporting on COVID-19 topics. In contrast to that, the investigation revealed statistically significant positive correlations between consumers’ orientation towards e-commerce and the incidence of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Germany and only partially in Romania. Moreover, consumers’ orientation towards e-commerce was influenced by regulatory interventions, such as the enforced lockdown measures. Particularly during the initial surge of COVID-19 cases, a strong consumer orientation towards e-commerce coincided, from a temporal perspective, with the imposition of lockdown measures. Framed by consumer behaviour literature, our study outlines different behavioural characteristics of consumers during disruptive times – in our case, health crises – and derived typologies of consumers with direct influence on entrepreneurial practice. Implications for Central European audience: Theoretically placed in the field of consumer behaviour research, our study adds to the literature as it reveals insights about consumers’ orientation towards e-commerce during disruptive times. Focusing on the most recent prominent disruptive phenomenon, the COVID-19 pandemic, our paper also has practical implications of entrepreneurial relevance. By outlining invaluable insights into consumers’ behaviour and their orientation towards e-commerce during the pandemic, our study might set starting points in designing entrepreneurial strategies for survival or development during disruptive times (e.g., health crises).