Shopping Intentions during COVID-19: What Can Canadian Businesses Learn to Encourage Future Consumer Support?

Abstract

This study examined shopping intentions of Canadian consumers post-COVID-19, and their intentions to specifically support Canadian businesses. Actionable recommendations that domestic businesses could implement to encourage support were also sought. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected online; quantitative data were analyzed by conducting raw frequencies, which captured the directionality of consumer shopping intentions. The qualitative data were subsequently analyzed by conducting an inductive thematic analysis, which obtained in-depth information about how businesses could support these intentions. Although most participants reported that they planned on maintaining their general shopping behaviors post-COVID-19, a majority also reported that they intended to specifically increase their support for domestic businesses. A variety of actionable recommendations were proposed that could be undertaken by domestic businesses to garner support both in a Canadian and international context. These themes were related to accessibility, affordability, advertising, quality, visibility, government lobbying, business values, business-consumer relationships, and maintaining the status quo. Further, these themes may be relevant to domestic businesses globally, particularly those with similar cultural orientations to Canada. The findings could assist businesses globally with idea generation and marketing strategies to attract consumers. Further, this exploratory study could help inform and support economic recovery efforts in a post-COVID-19 era.

Keywords:

• Consumer intentions
• consumer behavior
• COVID-19

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by a Mitacs Research Training Award in collaboration with Lakehead University, valued at $6,000 CAD. The funding was received by the first author, Erika Puiras, who was the recipient of the award. The award was received in one lump sum at the time of the study design.

Although not specific funding for this study, the first author would also like to gratefully acknowledge that she received a Canada Graduate Scholarship (Masters) from SSHRC during the time when this study was conducted.

Data accessibility statement

Data can be made available upon request.

Disclosure statement

Authors DM, CO, and SC declare no conflict of interest. EP also declares no conflict of interest, beyond the Mitacs funding support she received, as mentioned previously.