The impact of Covid-19 on consumer consumption. How does Covid-19  affect consumers' product preferences? A country comparison between The Netherlands and Sweden.

Abstract: Date: 03-06-2021 Level: Master thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Shajada Akter (1991/12/20) and Lipi Ouasim Khales(1994/01/23) Title: The impact of Covid-19 on consumer consumption. How does Covid-19affect consumers' product preferences? A country comparison between The Netherlands and Sweden. Tutor: Edward Gillmore Keywords: Product preferences, Consumer behavior, Buying behavior, Panic buying,Product consumption, Covid-19 pandemic. Research question: The impact of Covid-19 on consumer consumption. How does Covid-19affect consumers' product preferences? Background: At the beginning of 2020, a global crisis hit in the name of Covid-19. As aresult, many countries in the world closed their borders, economies went intorecession, supermarkets, shops, pharmacies faced panic shopping behaviorwhere consumers experienced empty store shelves and products were stockout. The pandemic forced retailers to limit the number of purchases of highdemandproducts. As consumption on product preferences changes in acrisis, it would be interesting for the researcher to explore the impact of globalhealth crises on consumption. This paper gives an overview of the recentchanges in consumption patterns that occurred due to Covid-19 and howconsumer behavior on product preferences changed because of the crisis. Purpose: This study aims to investigate the impact of the recent Covid-19 pandemicon consumer’s product preferences towards food and clothes, the impact onproduct supplies, and governmental restrictions between the Netherlandsand Sweden.Method: Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with 7 people living inThe Netherlands and 7 people living in Sweden. Conclusion: The findings indicated aspects of consumer behavior, buying behavior,product consumption, and factors affecting buying behavior became tied tothe pandemic in the context of the health aspect of Covid-19. There were notmany changes in food consumption, there were large shifts in clothesconsumption. It became evident that consumers favored certain productsduring the pandemic.