The impact of COVID specific factors on purchase intention of retail consumer with the moderating impact of personality

Pandemic conditions caused unprecedented situations and brought dramatic changes in the lifestyle that continued after the pandemic also. The impact of COVID-19 has been very deep and changed the world in a big way. This research paper attempts to study the impact of COVID specific factors like fear factors, social factors, psychological factors, risk, uncertainty and digital media on the buying intention of the retail customers post COVID times. Personality factors are identified as the mediating variable. There is no doubt that the pandemic witnessed a complete shift in the buying intention due to unprecedented and uncertain conditions that were prevailing everywhere. Buying intention can be explained as the degree of willingness and inclination a customer displays to buy a product and service during a particular period. A structured questionnaire was created based on identified variables. These variables are based on extensive literature review. The questionnaire is administered to 580 respondents through online mode and 398 complete responses across the country are used for analysis. The impact of relationship amongst the factors of COVID pandemic on buying behaviour intention is checked with the moderating impact of personality using smart PLS.