Online Shopping Trend During the Pandemic

The change of online shopping impacts the seller and also consumer from online and offline business

By Yee Yun Jie

KUALA LUMPUR: The online shopping trend has become one of the popular trends due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, consumers are now relying on online shopping while sellers are also slowly shifted to online business to survive. The reason online shopping trends becoming so popular nowadays is due to the pandemic, people are not encouraged to step out of the door to shop as it will increase the cases of coronavirus infection from the others. This has brought out the trend of online shopping as it is convenient to purchase products and services without going out.

Ho Kien Yi, 21, a part-time online seller that sells croissant bread mentioned that the pandemic has affected her business as her business is getting better than before. This is because the movement control order has limited people to go out and enjoy food but with the online shopping platforms, she is able to take orders online and deliver croissants to consumers.

“To attract more consumers among the large group of competitors, I often utilize the advertising and online lucky draw functions to grab the attention from consumers,” said Ho.

Ho also added that her biggest challenge currently is lack of manpower as she is the only person who has to do advertising, production, record order, and also delivery services.

Ho Kien Yi Online Part-time seller of Croissant

Operating business name 90s Patisserie

Yip Sam-Ee, 21, a traditional seller also the founder of Onni Nailsart. Onni Nailsart provides nail manicure and nails care services based in Bandar Baru Sungai Long.

She stated that the coming of the pandemic has restricted her to operate her business as usual as her job is necessary to have close contact with customers. She started shifting her business to online to sell press on nails that customers can customize their nails design with contactless.

“At first, is very hard for me to start my business online as I provide services face to face. However, due to the pandemic, I noticed that nails manicure can also be performed in another way without close contact with customers,” said Yip.

Yip mentioned it is innovative towards her business

Contactless press on nails

Loo Lay Hui, 53, a traditional seller that sells dumplings in the night market in Bandar Mahkota Cheras said that she started to sell frozen dumplings in social media shopping groups to survive.

“Since the night market is not allowed to operate, I started to shift my business to online as I saw the potential of online business is getting more and more advanced nowadays,” said Loo.

“After customers order online, I will gather all the orders together and delivery them with online delivery services such as Lalamove so it will be more efficient for me to complete the order,” Loo added.

She stated that her biggest challenge of shifting business to online is the ability to use technology to confirm order and banking methods.

Loo mentioned that online business is a good platform to perform business due to the flexibility of time

Frozen dumplings that take order online since the pandemic Covid-19

Carol Yee, 43, a traditional consumer housewife of two children, shifting to online shopping during the pandemic agreed that online shopping gives convenience as the order will be sent to the doorstep.

“The last time I use online shopping was 5 years ago, due to the pandemic I was forced to use back online shopping and found out that online shopping has been improving a lot compare to 5 years ago,” said Carol.

She stated that she refuses to use online shopping is because she faced a scam before and lose around RM300. Therefore, she thinks that online shopping is in a high-risk situation that might lose her money after purchase.

“I was surprised after I use the current online shopping platform as it provides guarantee and also privacy protected to every consumer,” Carol added.

Carol mentioned that the current online shopping has successfully build up trust and credibility towards consumers

Tan Yew Hong, 21, an active online consumer student who often purchases orders on online shopping platforms agreed that online shopping is a popular trend as nowadays most people rely heavily on technology especially young adults.

“ I believe that online shopping will slowly replace the traditional way of shopping as online shopping is convenient and also easy to find any things we want by searching it online,” said Tan.

He also stated that buying a product online is much cheaper than the physical store may be because the online seller did not have to rent a shop to operate a business.

Tan mentioned that online shopping trends have the potential to become the most popular shopping method in the future

Leong Kam Ga, 21, a student that used online shopping frequently thinks that online shopping can fulfill her needs.

“I always buy things online as it will be easier to compare the products and brands,” said Leong.

“I will also go through the reviews of the products before purchasing them, this can ensure that the quality of the product,” Leong added.

And also due to the pandemic, this has shown how important online shopping is to her is when she needs something, she will just buy it online.

Leong mentioned that the online shopping trend is slowly developing in people’s minds and everyone should learn to fit in the current trend