Post Pandemic Recovery: A Reflection of Online Shopping Behaviour of Ghanaian Residents

Abstract

COVID-19 has had economic, social and psychological impacts. The retail industry which was affected urged huge changes in consumer purchasing habits around the world. Policies and restrictions from the pandemic compelled consumer habits to adapt as E-commerce became the major tool for businesses and consumers to still transact for goods and services. However, it hasn’t thrived so well in some regions of the world such as Africa due to gaps in income and inequalities, technological facilities, supply chain routes, etc. which will produce a different consumer experience than what is experienced in developed countries. Despite the growing research on consumer behaviour post-pandemic, there hasn’t been a lot of information concerning consumers in developing countries, especially in the sub-Saharan region. This study fills the gap by uncovering the scarcity of information from a Ghanaian viewpoint by providing more information on online shopping behaviour and exhibiting the impact of the pandemic and environmental concerns for online consumers in Ghana. The research method adopted here is a quantitative one with the design being descriptive. The sample size of this study is 385 with a 5% margin of error rate and a 95% confidence level. Data is collected from respondents via simple random sampling on an online survey shared on social media and by emails. The data will be coded and analysed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software Version 26. Descriptive and Inferential statistics will represent the results of the study. Expected findings should inform on the main impacts of Covid-19 and environmental concerns for Ghanaian consumers when shopping online as well as identify key consumer habits of Ghanaian consumers when shopping online generally and post-pandemic. It should also report the importance of different e-commerce criteria for Ghanaian consumers when shopping online post-pandemic. The conclusions from this study will be relevant to industry players to look at critical issues that affect the e-commerce industry in Ghana to make strategic decisions concerning consumer experience for the future. It should also assist academics in the curation of knowledge surrounding the pandemic, which is becoming increasingly important as the globe turns its attention to recovering from the offsets of the pandemic and the increased interest in the digital economy