Thomas WIELAND, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Germany
Online retailing challenges and endangers physical retail locations such as city centres and commercial areas. Thus, shopping channel choice and multi-channel shopping behaviour have become very relevant topics in retail geography. Previous studies have shown that channel choice is determined by socio-demographic characteristics of consumers, their place of residence (urban vs. rural), and their psychographic characteristics (shopping attitudes), as well as the accessibility of physical shopping locations (e.g., Beckers et al. 2018, Schmid and Axhausen 2019, Zhen et al. 2018). The Corona pandemic since 2020 substantially impacts the retail landscape. Apart from government-imposed restrictions, some studies have shown voluntary changes in individual behaviour in order to avoid infections, in particular reductions in shopping mobility (e.g., Goolsbee and Syverson 2021). The present study attempts to analyse the impact of voluntary behaviour changes due to the pandemic on shopping decisions. Following the existing literature, a quantitative channel choice model is utilized to identify the determinants of purchasing online or in-store. The micro-econometric model is based on individual shopping decisions and includes socio-demographic, geographic and psychographic characteristics of consumers (Beckers et al. 2018, Schmid and Axhausen 2019, Zhen et al. 2018). To account for the impact of the pandemic, the model includes two behavioural variables which were inferred from the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease (PVD) scale. This concept stems from evolutionary psychology and measures worries about contagious diseases. It has been already utilized for analysing behavioural changes during the Corona pandemic (e.g., Stangier et al. 2021). Another variable reflects consumer acceptance of mandatory face masks in retailing. The empirical basis is a representative consumer survey in three German regions from October to December 2021 (n>2000). The analysis is currently in progress.
Mots clés : Retail geography|Online shopping|Channel choice|Corona pandemic|Retail locations
A103567TW