Changes in online shopping activities of

Generation Z students - A qualitative study on online purchase intent and impulsivity during Covid-19

Aspitman Avesta

Karacsonyi Beata Valeria

Uthman Dalia

School of Business, Society & Engineering

Course: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration Tutor: Johnstone, Leanne

Course code: FOA243 Date: 02.06.2021

15 cr

Abstract Date: 02.06.2021 Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Avesta Aspitman Beata Valeria Karacsonyi Dalia Uthman (94/05/24) (95/08/01) (97/01/07) Title: Changes in online shopping activities of Generation Z students

- A qualitative study on online purchase intent and impulsivity during Covid-19

Tutor: Leanne Johnstone Keywords: Online purchase intent, Covid-19, Generation Z, Students, Impulsive

shopping Research question: How has Covid-19 impacted the online purchase intent of students

at Mälardalen region of Sweden? Purpose: To examine how the impact of Covid-19 has affected the online

purchase intent of students of Mälardalen region in Sweden. Method: This study has an inductive approach with a qualitative data collection.

Semi-structured interviews were held with nine students within the Mälardalen region and were conducted online through the communication tool ZOOM. A thematic analysis was conducted to analyze the collected primary data and with assistance of the literature review, four dimensions of the topic could be identified: financial, performance, time and psychological.

Conclusion: Online purchasing during Covid-19 has increased and thus, affected

the online purchasing intent of students in the same way. This is mainly due to restrictions and due to the pandemic and the consumer’s perception of the online retailers’ adaptation to it. Increased impulsivity due to Covid-19 cannot be concluded in this study and thus contradicts existing and recent literature that suggests impulsive shopping increases in crises. Instead, Generation Z students are more inclined to save their money and make strategic choices to purchase online.

Acknowledgement: We would like to express our gratitude firstly towards our supervisor Leanne Johnstone, who

continuously encouraged and guided us with input and feedback. Secondly, we would like to thank our

fellow students who helped us with valuable input in the process of writing the thesis. Completing this

thesis would not have been accomplished without all participants who took the time to contribute with

valuable information. We would also like to thank our friends and families for the support during the

process of producing this thesis. And lastly, we want to thank each other for the hard work and

determination. This task could not have been achieved without the continuous support and

encouragement given to each other.

Abstract 21. Introduction 1

1.1 Background 11.2 Problem Discussion 51.3 Purpose 51.4 Research question 6

2. Literature review 72.1 Digitalization within e-commerce 7

2.1.1 Distribution channels in the online retail context 82.1.2 Payment methods in the retail context 9

2.2 Antecedents of online shopping 92.2.1 Trust 102.2.2 Perceived risk 122.2.3 Security and privacy issues 132.2.4 Price orientation 142.2.5 Time consciousness 15

2.3 Online purchase intent 152.3.1 Characteristics of consumers 152.3.2 Impulsive shopping 19

2.4 Dimensions 192.5 Conceptual framework 20

3. Methodology 233.1 Research approach 233.2 Research design 243.3 Choice of interviewees 253.4 Operationalization 263.5 Data collection 28

3.5.1 Primary data 293.5.2 Data analysis 31

3.6 Quality criteria 323.7 Research ethics 323.8 Method limitations 33

4. Empirical findings 344.1 Presentation of each participant 344.2 General background information 35

4.3 Identified dimensions 374.3.1 Financial 374.3.2 Performance 394.3.3 Time 414.3.4 Psychological 43

5. Analysis 465.1 Digitalization 465.1.1 Payment methods 46

5.1.2 Distribution channels 475.2 Antecedents 48

5.2.1 Trust 485.2.2 Perceived Risk 505.2.3 Security and privacy issues 525.2.4 Price orientation 535.2.5 Time consciousness 54

5.3 Possible outcome 556. Conclusion 57

6.1 Limitation and future research 57References 59Appendices 65

Appendix A: Interview questions 65Appendix B: Fill-out form 66

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1. Introduction

1.1 Background

Different emergencies, development, and various diseases make the world vulnerable, and an

example is the ease of transportation locally and internationally, making it easy for multiple

diseases to spread (Nadeak et al., 2020). An outbreak of Covid-19, also known as coronavirus,

which started in China and spread to many other countries, has affected the world in many

different ways. On January the 30th, 2020 the Emergency Committee of the World Health

Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency and announced that SARS-CoV-2

(Covid-19) had spread globally and was a growing case both in China and in international

locations (Velavan & Meyer, 2020). Covid-19 has contributed to uncertain forecasts, including

different messages from authorities, shortage of resources, and growing economic losses

(Pfefferbaum & North, 2020). The pandemic has forced people to conduct most of their

everyday activities online to avoid the risk of spreading the deadly virus further. For example,

people are recommended not to have large or public gatherings of more than eight persons in

Sweden. Schools and universities campus-based learning has stopped and moved education to

virtual learning (Adnan, 2020).

The long-term effects of the pandemic are not yet determined. However, it is possible to see

many different adaptations and various changes in society all over the world. Roggeveen and

Sethuraman (2020) explains that the demand for home delivery of food, groceries, and

healthcare has increased. At the same time, problems with inventory and supply chain

management have increased for the retailers. The authors state that retailers of shoes and

clothing struggle with sales and to be able to survive, they are emerging new ideas to engage

and reach customers. They further argue that the battle for the retailers is how to encourage and

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maintain impulse purchases, which is more common to do in physical stores than online.

Consumers will have no other choice than to adapt to new ways of purchasing and old behaviors

will change to new (Roggeveen & Sethuraman, 2020). The authors continue to argue that job

losses will make consumers' purchase intent decrease and as a result; spend less money on

luxuries and non-essential products and turn to discounts and essential goods and services.

Value-adding in stores and restaurants will be viewed differently, priorities such as fun and

entertainment will be shifted to how the customers see the stores and restaurants responsible

for having rules for social distance and how clean they are (Roggeveen & Sethuraman, 2020).

Roggeveen and Sethuraman (2020) claim that the most common form of payment historically

is to pay in cash rather than e-payment. However, as online shopping has increased due to the

pandemic, so has the use of credit cards and various types of e-payments. Simultaneously,

selling fake products and stealing identities online has increased. Moreover, the study shows

that customers who care if a product meets the ethical requirements tend to pay more if the

price increases, are more loyal, and question the product's price discount. In contrast customers

who are not involved in such matters will be positive about the discount. Nonetheless, there are

not just positive effects of going online during the pandemic when searching through recent

literature. A downside to online purchases and home delivery has been studied in Australia

where, through a survey that was conducted, it was measured the alcohol consumption of

Australian consumers in May 2020 (Colbert et al., 2020). The result showed that 36 percent

would stop drinking if the home delivery service stopped and the easy access of goods had

positive effects on time and energy efficiency, but clearly shows a negative impact in other

areas.

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Sheth (2020) highlights whether online consumers will go back to how it used to be before the

pandemic or if the consumer's behavior regarding shopping has changed forever. He argues

that consumers' choice is bounded by time and location. Mobility is limited in several places

in the world, and time flexibility has increased. He continues by addressing characteristic

consumer behavior in terms of the Covid-19 pandemic; stockpiling products that are considered

essential, improvisation to make it work regardless, postpone products that are considered

unnecessary, embracing different digital solutions, and the convenient way of purchasing

everything from home. These habits that have changed to be more affordable, convenient, and

accessible will most likely be changed forever (Sheth, 2020). More than 60 percent of all global

consumers have changed their shopping behavior by trying different online retailers when the

preferred product is challenging to purchase and simultaneously, e-commerce has increased

(Arora et al., 2020).

Li et al. (2020) argue that people tend to have impulsive consumption behavior in emergencies.

When the news about Covid-19 came out in the UK, people bought fresh food in large amounts,

resulting in food waste. They further explain that in Australia, the stores were out of toilet paper

since people rushed to supermarkets to purchase necessary supplies to stock up. Even purchases

of guns increased in the United States and the researchers further explained that this behavior

is not unusual (Li et al., 2020). Furthermore, they argue, similarities in impulsive consumption

can be observed during both the SARS and the nuclear power leakage in Fukushima.

Consumers make short amounts of consideration when purchasing impulsively, usually driven

by time limitations and the external environment, and this type of behavior is characterized by

immediate ownership and quick decision-making (Li et al., 2020). In contrast to some of

Sheth’s (2020) assumptions above which suggest prioritizing and economizing purchases

during the pandemic, studies show that consumers overspend and over-consume during hard

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times (Li et al., 2020). Furthermore, Li et al. (2020) report how the severity of public

emergencies positively affects consumers' impulsive consumption. People are more likely to

make impulsive consumption the more severe the pandemic. More specifically, an increase in

impulsiveness can be seen due to the pandemic (Eger et al., 2021).

Given the uncertainty over how the pandemic affects consumers purchasing behavior outlined

above, this study will investigate the current effects of the pandemic on students' online

purchase intent. The research on students' purchase intent during the Covid-19 pandemic is

limited since the phenomenon is relatively new and continuing. However, literature on how

different generations' buying behavior has changed caused by the pandemic has been

investigated.

Zwanka and Buff (2021, p.4) discuss how the Generation Y and Generation Z found the idea

of stockpiling different groceries is “old fashion” because food groceries will always be

available; however, the pandemic has caused and made it clear that pantry-stocking and online

purchases of food have increased for all generations. They further explain that historically

stressful life events have led to consumers handling the situation by purchasing more intensely

and changing their consumption habits. Eger et al. (2021) consider that purchase patterns and

shopping behavior are influenced by the experience of a particular generation. They believe

that people born between 1989-2000 prefer online shopping because of all the benefits that

come with it, such as easy delivery and low prices. Furthermore, what characterizes this

generation is also the high level of debt and earning less money than the average. What is most

common for all generations is that all value payment security. In their study on adults (18+) in

the Czech Republic, they concluded that the bigger the fear of the pandemic, the more

significant was the change in consumers' shopping behavior. The fear of losing jobs was 53

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percent. Another study, by Barber and Kim (2021), showed that during the Covid-19 younger

people (between 18-35) worried less compared to older people (between 65-81).

1.2 Problem Discussion

The pandemic’s long-term effects are yet to be revealed; however, it is obvious that the Covid-

19 pandemic has forced the world to change (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020). Scott (2000) states

that rational decisions are based on the information about the goals and their outcomes. The

early scholar Weick’s (1988) study about crisis revealed that people act by what they think

about the situation and the more people understand a crisis and the more information they have,

the more they will act rationally.

If this is true, then people who experienced the pandemic and saw the immediate effect that it

had on their financial situations, should be acting rationally in their spending. That is, they

should spend less. However, the study made by Li et al. (2020) showed that consumers

purchased more than they needed in crises (specifically Covid-19).

The world has experienced a crisis yet again, however, it is the first time that a crisis of this

size has affected the entire world during a time where technology, digitalization and capitalism

have been as developed as they are. Could it be that easy access through technology and

digitalization, as well as price variations due to the international competitive market, are the

reason for the irrational shopping behaviour? For this study, irrational shopping behaviour is

defined as impulsive shopping, which is presented in the literature review chapter.

1.3 Purpose

The many challenges that have been brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic has undeniably

brought on changes in the world as known today. However, at the point of time when this thesis

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was written, the pandemic was still ongoing which also brought the possibility of continuous

changes occurring. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine how the impact of the

pandemic has affected the online purchase intent of the students of Mälardalen region in

Sweden, in order to contribute to future research by giving researchers an idea and context as

to how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the purchase intent of students in the online retail

environment. The idea was to document data to help researchers understand how the changes

were viewed whilst the crisis was still ongoing.

1.4 Research question

RQ: How has Covid-19 impacted the online purchase intent of students in the Mälardalen

region of Sweden?

The students within the Mälardalen region are an empirical context to explore how the

pandemic affects online purchase intent. The choice of students within Mälardalen was due to

the matter of accessing, reaching, and gathering the amount of empirical research during the

Covid-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic, the research is limited to students within the

Mälardalen region because the authors live and study in the area and those students constitute

members of the Generation Z age cohorts which hold certain assumptions or characteristics in

terms of their buying behavior in the literature as previously overviewed.

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2. Literature review The following chapter will be highlighting the literature framing this research and providing understanding of the theory context relating to the research question and purpose. The chapter has been divided into three sections, where the first section focuses on concepts relating to the online purchasing environment, the second section focuses on the concepts relating to the factors that motivates the consumer to buy or not. The third section highlights the consumer profile used for this study, a combination between the first and second section in context to the consumer profile. A summary and conceptual model derived from the literature is presented at the end of this chapter.

2.1 Digitalization within e-commerce

Lehdonvirta states that earlier authors viewed online shopping as a way of purchasing planned

necessary things compared to the “ordinary” way, which was explained as more experiential

and fun (Lehdonvirta, 2010, as cited in Lehdonvirta, 2012, p.19). Furthermore, he suggests that

some authors even meant that online shopping dehumanizes the world; no real-life interaction

is needed. Anderson (2006) argues that we as humans are obsessed with being trendy and

popular, and the digitized world we live in helps us be that. Consumers can express their

preferences with a wide range of products (Anderson, 2006). As Gray and Rumpe (2015)

explain, many other parts of society can benefit from digitalization as well. Historical

documents and artworks could be stored online forever, for example. Scientists can easily

repeat and digitize their experiments that allow more and further analysis for example through

big data that can be stored online, which one might have as the first impression of digitalization.

Those authors believe that what makes this data valuable is how it is analyzed and used.

From a company-side, Parida et al. (2019) also argues that companies need to be innovative

and build business models around digital technologies and digital platforms to keep up and

provide value to customers. Nevertheless, over the years, researchers have had a difficult time

trying to define digitalization because of the various applications and technologies associated

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with it (Parida et al., 2019). As such, Parida et al. define digitalization as the "use of digital

technologies to innovate a business model and provide new revenue streams and value-

producing opportunities in industrial ecosystems" (2019, p.6). Bloomberg (2018) agrees on the

difficulties of defining the term digitalization. He claims that some authors define digitalization

as a way of interacting with other people, which can get more and more dependent on because

society expects nothing else. Weijo et al. (2018) talk about how digitalization for consumers

means an increased sense of self-control, how like-minded consumers can find each other when

sharing a common interest, and with different activities and actions, such as comments and

rating, they can impact the output of a product or service. This contributes to an additional

sense of belonging and collectivism (Weijo et al., 2018). Digitalization has also increased the

possibility of consumers taking an active role in the production process and are more exposed

to online shopping sites since it is always available (Lehdonvirta et al., 2012). Previously the

consumer's choice was limited by the available product being located nearby (Benner &

Waldfogel, 2020). However, digitalization has made it possible for easy access, an increase in

quality, and the availability of various products (Waldfogel, 2017).

2.1.1 Distribution channels in the online retail context

Waldfogel (2017) explains that promoting different products on digital platforms enriches

information exchanges through online reviews between the producers and consumers, as well

as between consumers. He argues, for instance, a traditional publication of books offers 50 000

reviews per year compared to Goodreads' largest customer rating platform, which can offer 10

million users’ reviews. Consumers are now awash in products they desire because of the easily

accessible and increased diverse forms of access to these products (Waldfogel, 2017). A study

conducted by Miklosik et al. (2020) explains that fewer people watch less television nowadays

and, instead, use social media and spend more time online. By using search engines, consumers

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save time and locate what they specifically search after. Furthermore, when watching

television, consumers tend to switch channels or ignore advertisements.

2.1.2 Payment methods in the retail context

Retailers started to build for online shopping in the middle of the 1990s—one of the first signs

was payment with credit cards (Lehdonvirta, 2012). A study conveyed by See-To et al. (2014)

reveals that not all shopping intentions of consumers lead to sales because consumers tend to

use online shopping carts as a wish list for future purchases. One of the reasons for the

fulfillment is the payment type. The authors further explain that by entering different private

and risky information, people often hesitate. The security and privacy of the customer should

be protected (Parida et al., 2019).

Consumers' characteristics can depend on how accepting someone is to the payment method,

and the buyer's expectation can impact what type of payment to use (Foscht et al., 2010).

Customers prefer that digitized platforms have to be functional and easy to use, and additional

payments for digitization functionality are not preferable by customers (Parida et al., 2019).

Lehdonvirta (2012) believes that nowadays, for some services and products, direct consumer

payment has shifted to advertising-funded payment. An example is newspapers that are

advertising-funded and therefore freely distributed. He believes that consumers instead pay

with their time and attention.

2.2 Antecedents of online shopping

Online consumer behavior is a complex conundrum with several aspects to take into account

(Hwang & Jeong, 2016), such as the characteristics of consumers, sales channels, merchants,

social media, websites and products (Akar & Nasir, 2015). The emergence of advanced

technology and the Internet has strongly affected the values and lifestyles of consumers and

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thus, changed their behavior and intentions as well (Díaz et al., 2017). Shopping online

provides several benefits to consumers, not the least convenience and available information

(Dennis et al., 2009; Hwang & Jeong, 2016). Nevertheless, there are also several challenges in

online settings and from a consumer’s perspective it is, among others, the trust and perceived

risk; a pair which play a crucial role in a consumer’s online purchase intentions (Akar & Nasir,

2015).

In an extensive literature review conducted by Chang et al. (2005), a variety of antecedents to

online shopping were identified and explored, including perceived risk and trust. They argue

that these two concepts need further research due to their complexity of interpretation among

researchers; the concepts are never interpreted solely. D’Alessandro et al. (2012) suggest that

several antecedents of online purchasing can be addressed in order to reduce the perceived risk

of the consumer, which subsequently should increase trust. Their study concluded that concerns

of privacy and security in regard to online shopping, increased the perceived risk of consumers.

In this sense, trust and perceived risk are arguably interrelated and correspondingly, other

antecedents, such as privacy and security, also hold weight. Price and time are additional

elements that are fundamental to any consumer, and thus, will also be explored in this literature

review.

2.2.1 Trust

Trust has often been interpreted conjointly with other antecedents to online shopping and

therefore has an inconclusive definition, but one common standpoint about the concept has

been its ability to decrease a consumer’s uncertainty in online settings (Chang et al., 2005). To

make a transaction online include risks between the buyer and the seller, as they become

dependent on each other in the online exchange. Thus, it is essential that both the buyer and the

seller trust each other to fulfill their commitments towards one another, in spite of the

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vulnerability that it brings along (Gefen et al., 2003). Arguably, this is not only true between a

buyer and a seller, but also between consumers and online vendors, as well as intermediaries

such as influencers. That is, trust in the online retail context is more complex with emerging

pathways where it is not only between the consumer and online retailer or e-vendor, but trust

in a retailer or product is indirectly created through, for example, social media influencers for

millennials (e.g., Johnstone & Lindh, 2018) or reviewer websites. For such premises,

Bhattacherjee (2002, p.212) emphasizes trust as crucial in these “online exchange relationships

characterized by uncertainty, anonymity, lack of control, and potential opportunism”.

McKnight et al. (2002) define trust as a concept built on compounds which happens before,

during or after an online transaction. They study consumer trust in online settings and

correspondingly, define trust in an online vendor as a construct of two interrelated elements:

trusting beliefs and trusting intentions. They explain that trusting beliefs relate to the

consumer’s perceived ability, altruism and integrity of an online vendor; for example, believing

that the online vendor will not purposely deceive the consumer. As for trusting intentions,

McKnight et al. (2002) explain it as the consumer’s willingness to rely on the online vendor;

for example, going through with the transaction and putting any feelings of concern aside.

McKnight et al. (2002) further claim that reputation, website quality and first impression of the

web environment are additional elements that influence trust and therefore, an online

consumer’s decision to transact with unfamiliar sellers online is heavily influenced by trust.

This implies the importance of the online settings and the effect it has on consumers. Similarly,

Gefen (2000) also claims that familiarity and trust complement each other and thus, affect the

purchase intention of online consumers. His definition of familiarity within e-commerce is

broad, however, simplified it can be referred to as a consumer’s former acquaintance with the

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online shop and its processes. If online settings, in addition to trust, have an impact on the

consumer’s purchase intent, then arguably, so do the distribution channels and payment

methods offered by the online vendor, since both are essential parts of the online sales

environment.

Vieira et al. (2020) argue that a strong online presence increases consumers’ trust towards

retailers. Some examples of creative and engaging ways to exist online are brand- and user-

generated content through social media (Djafarova & Bowes, 2021). Chen et al. (2015) claims

that brand related social media posts can engage consumers and provoke positive feelings

towards the online retailer, which also forms the attitude towards purchase decisions. Even

influencers, who serve as intermediators between brand and product, have been found to

increase consumers’ trust when promoting products on social media (Johnstone & Lindh,

2018).

2.2.2 Perceived risk

The perceived risk is an aspect that affects online purchase intent of consumers since it directly

impacts attitude and online shopping behavior (Ariffin et al., 2018; Ko et al., 2004). Nowadays,

and with easier access to internet-connected devices, online transactions have become more

common. A certain degree of risk can be expected whenever shopping online, however, the

higher the perceived risk for the consumer to make an online purchase, the more discouraged

the consumer will feel (Ariffin et al., 2018). There are several elements to take into account

when referring to risks and online shopping, such as payment process, delivery and privacy.

Consumers that have made purchases online before and are more familiar with the process

show a significantly higher willingness to take the risk than for example, consumers who rarely

shop online (Lee & Tan, 2003).

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The definition of perceived risk is ambiguous, and some attempts describe it as the expectation

of losses or unfavorable outcome of a purchased product (Ariffin et al., 2018). Ko et al. (2004)

identified four common dimensions of risk that have a significant impact on purchase

decisions: performance, financial, time and psychological. They relate these dimension as

followed: performance risk involves the expected product quality; financial risk concerns

losing money, the need to pay more money to ensure the product performance, and loss of

sensitive information provided in the online transaction; time risk includes the inconvenience

in regards to the amount of time spent on acquire the product, replace it or repair it; and

psychological risks relates to the inner peace of the consumer being disrupted by circumstances

caused by the other risk factors.

2.2.3 Security and privacy issues

Security and privacy are elements which concern online consumers and have been presented

as critical aspects in e-commerce (Kim et al., 2016). As online consumption becomes more

common in line with increased digital solutions, Hassan et al. (2020) claim that credit cards,

debit cards and mobile payment are particularly popular payment methods for online purchases,

and consequently, suggest that there is a need for improvements of security and privacy in

online payment methods. They explain that the online transaction method of choice involves a

potential risk for the consumer, for example, the consumer might become a victim of credit

card fraud or identity theft.

Both security and privacy have been correlated with consumers’ trust in the online settings of

an e-vendor (Chen & Dibb, 2010; Kimery & McCord, 2002; Yoon, 2002). As proposed by

Kimery and McCord (2002), online consumers may feel more confident if they find a type of

technology assurance provided by the e-vendor, for example, a collaboration with a trusted

third party. In a Swedish context, this could, for example, be Klarna and Qliro (Swedish fintech

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companies). Kimery and McCord (2002) further argue that such assurance may not only

increase consumers' trust that their sensitive information will be handled ethically, but also let

new potential customers predict the reliability of the e-vendor. Other ways to increase trust and

to assure an online consumer of their privacy and security while online shopping may include

providing safe ways to administer online transactions and be transparent of the way the

collected, sensitive information is being handled (Chen & Dibb, 2010). A recent study

conducted by Bandara et al. (2020) investigating consumers’ attitudes on privacy and security

in online settings, offered several conclusions on the matter: not all consumers consider sharing

sensitive information as relinquishing privacy; some feel helplessness towards how to protect

their privacy; others are cognitively separate towards privacy issues.

2.2.4 Price orientation

Price is another important factor that can influence consumer behavior both positively and

negatively in the sense that consumers will reflect over the quality of the product they are

purchasing in relation to the price that they are paying (Lichtenstein et al., 1993). Surely price

affects both online and offline consumers in one way or another. A study conducted by Lee et

al. (2016) found that online consumers had a more complex reaction to price changes in e-

commerce than consumers do in offline settings. For example, they found that a first-time price

drop in a product online provoked mostly negative reactions in online consumers whereas the

second time that price dropped, consumers were slightly more positive towards the change. In

comparison, they found that price drops in offline settings generally impact the consumer

positively. Thus, drawing the conclusion that online consumers have a more complicated

relation to price than offline consumers. Experiential online consumers with a desire for

stimulation have a tendency to purchase impulsively and when they do, they usually focus on

prices to find the better deal (Wolfinbarger & Gilly, 2001). For example, they may refine their

searches and filter easily to compare the same products and its offered prices at different online

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vendors. Simultaneously, because of lower production costs, digitization has made it easier for

lower-cost product alternatives, and the market can deliver substantially improved products

every time a new product launch (Waldfogel, 2017). Accordingly, consumers have more access

to conveniently find products of preference at a lower cost.

2.2.5 Time consciousness

Time is arguably one of the resources that consumers spend the most, regardless of whether it

is in online or offline settings. Punj (2012) argues that there is a trade-off between saving

money and saving time when consumers shop online. The result of his study implies that

consumers with high income are attracted by the latter one, whereas consumers with lower

income are more focused on saving money. Literature also suggests that in regard to time,

convenience shoppers that are experienced with online shopping are prone to look for

effortlessness in their online shopping process in order to save time (Nirmala & Dewi, 2011).

2.3 Online purchase intent

Triandis (1980) explains intentions as a phenomenon where an individual hands themself a set

of directions which will cause him or her to act and behave in an explicit and definite way.

That is, intentions are directly related to the decision-making process of an individual. In this

study, intentions have been situated in an online purchasing context. As defined by Pavlou

(2003), online purchase intent is the degree of willingness a consumer has to make a purchase

online, meaning that the key aspects that are most relevant are the factors motivating the actual

purchasing act (see also, Peña-García et al., 2020), which is also the definition for this study.

2.3.1 Characteristics of consumers

Previous research has proclaimed that different age groups have different approaches towards

online shopping (Richa, 2012) and it is expected that Generation Z are soon to be the

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predominant consumer segment (Vieira et al., 2020). Kahawandala et al. (2020) suggest that

Generation Z are strongly influenced by the surroundings which they grew up in, and in their

report, they found that Generation Z respondents were generally more educated, conscious and

responsible with money, information seeking and highly tech-savvy. Fundamentally,

Generation Z is the first generation of individuals born into the digital age as it is known today

and can be considered significant since it means that they have been exposed to larger amounts

of data and technology (Kahawandala et al., 2020). That is, Generation Z did not need to adapt

to the new era of digitalization, unlike earlier generations, and are more confident in navigating

online.

According to the Swedish Central Bureau of Statistics (SCB), approximately 30 percent of all

students accepted to higher education in Sweden were around the age of 19, and approximately

19 percent of all students accepted were between the ages 20-27 (SCB, 2020). These numbers

show that the average age of 50 percent of the students in higher education in Sweden is around

the age of 23. This is also supported by a study that was conducted by the Swedish Higher

Education Authority in 2018, which concluded that the average age of a student in Sweden was

around 24 years old (UKÄ, 2018). Adopting the assumption that the average student is

approximately 24 years old in the year 2021, then presumably, the characteristics of the average

student belong to Generation Z. Although the year of birth for the Generation Z cohort varies

depending on the researcher, for this study it is defined as people born from the year 1995 to

2010 (Patel, 2017).

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A study conducted by Delafrooz et al. (2010) investigates Malaysian students' online shopping

behavior and highlights a specific aspect regarding the perceived benefits of online shopping.

The empirical data of the study indicates that students are inclined to convenience when online

shopping, such as saving time and money, and a wider range of options. This demonstrates that

students have specific requirements, demands and preferences when purchasing online, and

reasonably, this can be true for students belonging to the Generation Z cohort as well.

It has been shown that Generation Z are highly cognizant when they make purchases online

and that their online purchase intent is influenced by “factors like perceived ease of use,

perceived usefulness, and risks related to online transactions and privacy, availability of

products online, prices and discounts or offers related to the products, customer satisfaction,

and vendor’s reputation” and also trust, which was emphasized as the most significant factor

above the others (Tiwari & Joshi, 2020, p.184).

Price has also been found to be a key factor as support in the decision-making process of

making a purchase online for Generation Z, however, in the same study, convenience was

found less important (Vieira et al., 2020). Additional elements that impact online purchase

intent in consumers are demographic characteristics, for example: gender, marital status, family

size and income (Suki, 2011). In relation to this, the Swedish Board of Student Finance (CSN)

reports numbers showing that, in higher educations, 37 percent of students taking student loans

believes the loan covers all their expenses each month, however, an increasing number of

students are also taking on part-time jobs to finance their living and adding another source of

income during their studies (CSN, 2020).

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One way of distributing the advertisement nowadays is via influence marketing. Throughout

trusted sources, in the eyes of the consumers, social media has made it possible to target the

right customer (Kim & Kim, 2020). Additionally, as Lehdonvirta (2012) explains, more power

has been given to the consumers since social media has become a way of online service.

Through various channels, such as blogs and social networks, consumers are the ones that drive

the production to what they specifically require. Unethical business and misinformation are

much easier to spread on social media by word of mouth, and at the same time, fashion and

trends can be spread at the same speed (Lehdonvirta, 2012). Generation Z were told to rank

social media in a study conducted by McGorry (2017). The study showed that Instagram,

YouTube, and Snapchat were on top in terms of their use of preferred distribution channels.

Nur and Panggabean (2021) argue that Generation Z (born after 1995) grew up with

smartphones as toys, therefore sometimes called iGeneration. Their study of 100 participants

from Jakarta, Indonesia, and nearby Jakarta showed that Generation Z has a positive attitude

to mobile payment services that can ease the transaction of online purchases. These generations

can easily review and find what they are searching for online. The study also showed that the

more easily used the mobile payment is, the more likely is it for Generation Z to purchase from

online shops, and Generation Z works as a benchmark for determining different online

transaction criteria, such as postponing the payment. The reliability, trust, and safety of an

online transaction positively impact Generation Z's usage of the service (Nur & Panggabean,

2021). A study conducted by Priporas et al. (2017) found that Generation Z is worrying about

the security issues regarding online transactions, specifically credit card fraud.

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2.3.2 Impulsive shopping

Impulsive shopping can be defined as a spontaneous and immediate decision to purchase a

product without considering the actual need for it (Chen et al., 2019). Consumers with a

tendency to impulse buy might find it hard to control their decision of purchasing a product,

which is often characterized as unplanned and unreflective (Wu et al., 2020). Chih et al (2012)

found a correlation between higher impulsiveness and a positive emotional state. That is, if a

consumer has positive feelings when shopping, it is more likely for them to buy on impulse as

they are more acceptant to higher risks at the time. Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2001) found that

experiential motivations for online shopping often included impulsive shopping, whereas

utilitarian shoppers tended to be more impulsive in offline settings. In other words, online

consumers who shop for fun, typically, made more online purchases in an impulsive manner

than those consumers who went online with a task-oriented manner. Djafarova and Bowes

(2021) argue that impulsive shopping behavior indeed can be triggered in people belonging to

the Generation Z cohort and the result of their study concluded that females were more likely

to make impulse online purchases than males, when exposed to encouraging and creative online

advertisement. They explained that online marketing stimuli can induce positive feelings in the

consumer, which then trigger consumers to make impulse purchases.

2.4 Dimensions

In order to categorize the empirical data, the authors identified four dimensions derived from

the literature, with inspiration from the article written by Ko et al. (2004). The identified

dimensions are financial, performance, time and psychological.

Ko et al. (2004, p.21) defines the factors as risks, where the financial aspect is defined as “the

perception that a certain amount of money may be lost or required to make a product work

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properly”. For this study the financial aspects touch all factors relating to the financial keys

that affect purchase intent, such as payment method and price orientation.

In the previous study, performance is defined as a risk that “the perception that a product

purchased may fail to function as originally expected” (Ko et al., 2004, p.21). In this study the

performance aspect relates to all factors relating to the performance of the product and online

environment, such as perceived risk, trust and distribution channels.

The authors further define time risk as “the perception that time, convenience, or effort may be

wasted when a product purchased is repaired or replaced” (Ko et al., 2004, p.22). For this

study the dimension relates to the time spent on looking and purchasing a product. In other

words; time consciousness.

The psychological risk is defined as “the perception that a negative effect on a consumer's

peace of mind may be caused by a defective product” (Ko et al., 2004, p.22). For this study the

definition of the psychological dimension relates to perceived risk and trust between the

consumer and the online retailer, as well as security and privacy issues where for example “the

potential loss of control over personal information, such as invasion of privacy” (Ko et al.,

2004, p.22) can be a perceived risk.

2.5 Conceptual framework

The pandemic has brought new economic realities and consequently, consumer behavior has

changed. This is the first time our world experiences a global crisis at the same time that

technology and digitalization are precedent in businesses all over the world. Retailers face new

challenges as online consumption is becoming increasingly prevalent during Covid-19 due to

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the special circumstances. There has already been some research conducted on the changes in

online consumer behavior and impulsivity as an effect of the pandemic, however, not enough

studies have exceptionally focused on students as the consumer group in the phenomenon. This

study focuses on exploring the effects that the pandemic has had on students - assuming that

those students belong to the Generation Z age cohort as outlined above - specifically, and how

their online purchase intent towards online retailing has changed accordingly.

The literature review of this study is therefore concentrated on three different areas:

digitalization, antecedents of online shopping, and online purchase intent in Generation Z

students. Digitalization can be considered an external force for a consumer’s online

consumption. Accordingly, it explores the concepts of distribution channels and payment

methods commonly offered at online retailers and how it has improved throughout the years.

These concepts are the foundations of the online existence of retailers visible to consumers.

Antecedents to online purchase intent directly affects the consumer. Literature has emphasized

trust and perceived risk to be predominant in online consumers’ decision-making process of

purchasing online. The concepts are of a complex nature and researchers have adopted different

interpretations. Nevertheless, trust and perceived risk are critical, interrelated factors.

Intervened with trust and perceived risk, antecedents such as security, privacy, price and time

have been examined. All the concepts of antecedents explored can assist to get a better and

coherent understanding of the decision-making process an online consumer goes through

before making a purchase.

The consumer group’s characteristics and shopping orientation is defined and examined.

Generation Z is the first generation that was born into the digital world and are generally used

22

to technology. However, the students of this generation have limited income and often work

part-time aside from their studies. The research on online purchase intent presented in this

literature review has shown that the consumers’ willingness to spend their money essentially

depends on 1) what, where and how the product is available and 2) who and where the

individual consumer is. These aspects affect each other and can be categorized into financial,

performance, time and psychological as main dimensions. Therefore, the consumer group,

Generation Z students, is of focus in this study and the changes in their online purchase intent

pre and during the pandemic will be explored through the independent concepts and the other

factors known to be crucial and motivating factors for online purchase intent in consumers, see

Figure 1.

Figure 1:

Own illustration. Created by the authors, 2021.

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3. Methodology This chapter describes the methodology of this study and it begins by defining its research approach and design. Subsequently, it motivates the choice of interviewees relevant to this study and presents the operationalization of the interviews conducted. Moreover, it presents data collection, data analysis and assesses the research quality, research ethics, and limitations.

3.1 Research approach

This study was based on an inductive approach, with a qualitative data collection. For this study

both quantitative, qualitative and a concurrent mixed method were considered, however after

contemplating them all, the qualitative research approach was identified as most relevant, as it

would best achieve the purpose and aim of the study since in-depth understanding of primary

data was necessary to reach the purpose of the research. Participants were selected to conduct

in-depth interviews to gain a broader perspective and understand the meaning of the chosen

research topic (Saunders et al., 2012), which was the data collection technique chosen and most

fit for this study. For this study, in-depth interviews are particularly practical to understand,

analyze and further investigate the problem area.

Since this study aimed to better understand how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the online

purchase intent of Generation Z students from Mälardalen region through the role of

digitalization and the antecedents (trust, perceived risk, online security, price orientation and

time consciousness), the most relevant approach was the inductive approach as the purpose of

this study was to help inform about the current impact for future researchers to build further

upon.

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3.2 Research design

An interview study is used to explore the phenomenon of the new context the pandemic has

created. Exploratory research has been used to gain knowledge on “what”, “why”, and “how”

the pandemic has impacted the students' online purchase intent. This kind of study is

characterized by how it is conducted, that is, a search of the literature and interviewing the

relevant people in the field (Saunders et al., 2019). The literature review of this thesis brought

the essential concepts of understanding online purchase intent, and by interviewing the

students, this thesis gained insight and understanding of the phenomena, which brought the

research to the subsequent stage. To get an idea of “who”, “what”, “where”, “when”, and

“how”, an accurate profile of the students is given. This study used a description-explanatory

which is explained by Saunders et al. (2019) as a descriptive research design that could be seen

as an extension of exploratory research.

Since the idea was to explore different results, a qualitative semi-structured interview was

conducted. This method emerges unexpected, naturalistic, and interactive with the interviewee

(Saunders et al., 2019). Questions were formed and designed to allow the participants to answer

from their point of view. Both open and structured questions were asked. The structured

questions were asked to get an overview of the student and guide the student to the investigated

topic.

For other researchers to translate and evaluate the study, the research design needed to be

detailed and bring the research process with complete evidence (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The

current pandemic is global, and the transferability of this research may be valid but less

applicable to other consumers and other crisis situations.

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3.3 Choice of interviewees

An interview study of student online purchase intent during this era of the pandemic is

relatively new, and participants who could answer more in-depth questions about the research

topic and who could paint an overall picture of the situation were needed for this interview.

The age of the interviewees was between 23-26 years old and are all students within the

Mälardalen region in Sweden. The sample was a mixture of different grades; first-year students,

seniors, and some were in between. The reason for the selected participants was that the authors'

main occupation is to study. By choosing students makes the contact network wider compared

to work and other occupations. The choice of interviewees was natural, and due to Covid-19,

access to participants was difficult.

The interview study involved nine students, independent of each other - which means the

participants' answers are not affected by each other nor do most of them know each other. The

participants of this study have a personal relationship with one of the authors of this study. The

relationship is in the form of friends, classmates, siblings, sister-in-law, and cousins to the

authors. Each interview was conducted individually with two authors present. One author had

a relation to the participant, which made the interview a comfortable and trustful conversation

for the participant, and the second author had a detached and impartial perspective on the

interview, which gave a distant and fair perspective to the study. The author who did not know

the participant asked the question, while the second author noted and observed the interview.

As Saunders et al. (2019) suggest, one should distance oneself to avoid influencing the finding

for neutral research. They also suggest having more than one interviewer to add different

perspectives, which will improve the reliability of the data collection. The author who knew

the participant from before worked as an element to make the participant comfortable by being

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present. The interview was recorded in order to transcribe the conversation afterward by the

third detached author.

Keeping in mind that the time to conduct the research was limited, so would the sample of data

also be. The authors had difficulties in finding students in other geographic areas in Sweden

other than the Mälardalen region and therefore they used their network of other students in the

Mälardalen region to find suitable participants for the interviews. The only requirements to

participate in the study was being a student before and during the pandemic and living in the

Mälardalen region.

3.4 Operationalization

The literature review conducted provides critical aspects of online purchase intent in

consumers, which can be investigated in order to discover changes due to Covid-19. The model

presented in Figure 1 in the conceptual model assists the reader to understand both the external

and internal driving forces for online purchase intent in Generation Z students as the consumer

group. Four dimensions could be identified which were relevant to this study: financial,

performance, time and psychological. These dimensions covered all presented concepts and

guided the interview questions to be properly formatted and relevant in regard to purpose of

this study. Seventeen structured questions were formed (see appendix A) and a fill-out form

(see appendix B) was sent out to each participant before the interview. The fill-out form helped

the interviewers to gain insight about the participants’ current situation as a student during

Covid-19. A table will be presented below this section to further illustrate the relevance of the

questions (see Table 1). However, questions 1, 11, 16 and 17 formed general questions and

served to provide background and support connection between the questions that were

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identified in the dimensions. As those questions were much dependent upon the participants’

answer, a semi-structured interview where follow up questions could be asked was the optimal

way to conduct the interviews. The general questions also helped the participants to elaborate

upon their online purchase intent both pre- and during Covid-19 and additionally, aided the

interviewers to make a comprehensive evaluation of the participants’ impulsiveness as a result

of the pandemic.

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Table 1:

Operationalization. Created by authors, 2021

3.5 Data collection The data collection process started by researching the topic of consumer behavior and reading

various previous articles and research to gain an understanding of the area. Once enough

knowledge had been collected, it also became clear that there was not a lot of research that had

29

been conducted on consumer behavior in students during Covid-19, which subsequently shaped

the scope of the research, problem area and purpose. For this reason, it was deemed relevant to

create and use primary data in order to collect the relevant information to answer the research

question and achieve the purpose of the research.

3.5.1 Primary data

The primary data needed for this research was collected through conducting nine semi-

structured, in-depth interviews. It would have been preferred to conduct the interviews in real

life to be able to see and analyze the body language of the interviewee and other small details

that can be lost in digital mediums (Saunders et al., 2019), but due to the on-going pandemic

measures were taken to ensure the safety of the authors and interviewees. The interviews were

therefore carried out online via the communication tool ‘ZOOM’. In order to minimize any

chances of missing important data, the interviewees were asked to set up the camera at a

distance where their upper bodies and hand gestures were visible. They were also asked to sit

in a room alone to eliminate the possibilities of disruption or influence by others. This was a

way for the authors to mimic the face-to-face interview experience, in a digital format.

Saunders et al. (2019) explain that in order for an interview to go well and the result to be

reliable, trust between the interviewer and the participants must be established. It was therefore

deemed necessary to explain the layout of the interview beforehand, how the information was

going to be used and if the participant had any questions. The communication medium ‘ZOOM’

was a tool which all students that participated were familiar with and had used since the

beginning of the pandemic when all school activities devolved to digital learning activities,

which was also another tactic to create trust between the interviewer and the participant.

Preparations for the data collection were done by collecting information regarding the research

area and background of the interviewees, in order to prove credibility and gain confidence from

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the interviewees (Saunders et al., 2019). The authors were students themselves, which was a

factor that was taken advantage of to corroborate that the participants felt comfortable, as well

as asking questions that the participants could relate to and understand easily.

The planned structure and nature of the interview was standardized with open-ended questions.

Seventeen relevant open-ended questions were formed (see appendix A) to ask all participants.

Each question was related to a specified dimension (see table 1, in operationalization), in order

to achieve in answering the research question and again; understanding how the purchase intent

of students in the Mälardalen region has changed during Covid-19. As time and resources were

limited, it was not possible to conduct more than nine semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The

interview was approached by a formal and standardized process to simplify the preparation

process of the interview. However, it must also be stated that in practice there are no perfectly

standardized procedures to conduct interviews. Questions and procedures may change in order

to provide the interview with more interactive and natural results (Saunders et al., 2012). Once

the participant was comfortable, the interviewer started asking open-ended questions and

listened carefully for the response to then ask open follow up questions if it was necessary for

the participant to elaborate their answer. All interviews were provided with the same

standardized open-ended questions; however, they varied a bit when participants were asked

to elaborate their answers.

All participants were also asked to fill out a form prior to the interview (see appendix B), the

reasoning behind this was to establish a student-profile for each participant and to later present

it in the empirical findings. In this form the participants were also asked which language they

were comfortable conducting the interview with and also if they wanted to remain anonymous.

The reason for letting the participant choose the circumstances such as language and identity

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(public or anonymous) is to give them the opportunity to express themselves freely and

elaborate according to how they understand the subject. As an attachment to the form, the pre-

set questions were also sent to the students to give the students the time and a moment to

understand and prepare for the interview (see appendix A) (Saunders et al., 2019).1 The

interviews with participants 5 and 6 were conducted in Swedish and has been directly translated

to English in Google Translate, with minor changes when the translation device failed to

translate correctly.

3.5.2 Data analysis

For data analysis techniques, many different methods were contemplated. However, as

Alhojailan (2012) explains, the thematic data analysis technique is commonly applied in

qualitative research where large amounts of content is collected, such as research that is

conducted by the use of in-depth interviews. The thematic analysis was also deemed fit for this

study as it teases out themes and patterns that are derived from the collected data. He further

explained that “Thematic Analysis is considered the most appropriate for any study that seeks

to discover using interpretations” (Alhojailan, 2012, p.40). Since the data collection process

was pre-set, it was expected that the amount of data that was collected would have to be divided

into different themes or categories in order to acquire a logical structure that would provide an

in-depth perspective regarding the topic of interest (Saunders et al., 2019). Since there is no

exact rule on how the empirical data should be categorized, the authors decided to use the

themes of the questions related to the literature to identify as category/dimension. In other

words, the chosen concepts were related to a specific dimension, as explained in the

operationalization table (Table 1). In order to investigate and examine the findings accordingly,

the authors decided to analyze the data by inserting the independent concepts (e.g., price

1Appendix A = Prepared questions for the interview Appendix B = Profile form filled out by participants prior to the interview

32

orientation, payment method, etc.) in each dimension and then compare, examine and

investigate the data towards the theoretical background. The analysis of the collected data

started by transcribing the interviews, taking notes throughout the transcribing process and

reading it multiple times in order to be familiar with the information and create each student's

profile which provided background to the empirical findings. Once the data was familiar, the

authors started categorizing, coding and disassembling the information in relation to the

literature background.

3.6 Quality criteria

This qualitative study can be measured by criteria, such as credibility, dependability, reliability,

and transferability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The validity of the relationship in an interview is

based on openness, trust, and low power differences between the researcher and the participant

(Steinke, 2004). The relationship between the interviewer and the participants is presented in

section 3.3. Reliability means the replication and consistency of the study (Saunders et al.,

2019). Steinke (2004) states that qualitative research can impossibly be identical replicated

compared to quantitative research. The author further explains that the requirement for

appropriate qualitative research is an understandable research process. A thorough research

design and operationalization are found in sections 3.2. and 3.4. The data collection is

sufficient, reliable to the research, and contributes to the development of the research area

(Saunders et al., 2019). Which is further explained in section 3.5.

3.7 Research ethics

As this research has been based on information gathered from interviews and real people, it has

been of importance to act ethically and responsibly with the information. Firstly, all participants

have been asked to volunteer their time to participate in the research; it has been completely

33

and entirely up to them to decide if they want to participate or not. Upon receiving a request to

participate, each participant was also informed regarding the set-up of the interview, as well as

the fact that the interview will be recorded and once it had been transcribed, it would then be

deleted. Furthermore, each participant was also asked if they wanted to remain anonymous and

what it would mean if their names were written explicitly in the study. For the safety of the

participants who wanted to remain anonymous, it was also discussed what type of information

that was relevant to include in the thesis and what would be considered personal, to which it

would be easy to piece the information together in order to locate the participant and expose

its identity.

3.8 Method limitations This study has a smaller sample size of nine interviewees and consequently, the generalizability

may be affected. Moreover, this study cannot guarantee that the participants are free of bias

towards themselves. In other words, it cannot be excluded that the participants have modified

their answers on purpose. To some extent, the validity of the answers given by the participants

may be affected as well since the participants might not be aware of changes in their online

purchasing intent, and whether or not it correlates to Covid-19 or simply just overlap with other

circumstances in their lives.

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4. Empirical findings In the following section the empirical findings will be presented. Initially, an introduction of each participant will be presented to show the background of each participant. Then, the data will be presented thematically, where each question belongs to the specified dimension/category.

4.1 Presentation of each participant Table 2:

35

4.2 General background information When asked, eight of nine participants answered that they had been financially affected by the

pandemic. The pandemic had not affected participant 6 at all. Participants 2, 3, and 4 either lost

their jobs or had difficulties getting a job because of the pandemic.

Participant 9 had been indirectly affected by the pandemic. The participant neither takes any

loan nor has a job, and all the financial support comes from the parents. The indirect effect

comes from the participant's dad, who lost his job due to the pandemic. Participant 9 elaborated

by saying:

"So, it's kind of like... a domino effect, even though it doesn't affect you directly, you still bear

the financial consequences of it."

The pandemic has affected participants 1, 2, 5, 7, and 8 spending activities. Participants 1, 2,

5, and 8 have been positively affected by the pandemic, as in buying less. Due to restrictions

and minimizing the risk of spreading the virus, their purchasing activities in physical stores,

restaurants, transportation costs, and going on vacations have decreased. However, participant

7 has been negatively affected by the pandemic, spending more on particular "enjoyable"

purchases and "going with intuition" as participant 7 expressed.

One participant had found a way of not ending up in her financial fear. She explained, “Oh,

and I also make it a point not to follow influencers or companies on social media, I have noticed

that I sometimes can be easily influenced by what I see other people buying and posting, so

instead I only look up influencers for coupon codes if I have already decided on purchasing

something”.

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Five out of nine participants answered that their online purchases are planned according to their

needs. Two out of nine added that their online purchasing activities had increased since the

pandemic while explaining that they have more time on their hands, even though they do not

necessarily go through with the purchase, “window-shopping” on webpages and social media

has increased. Participant 3 said “I shop a lot online but that's because I rarely do it in store. I

also think it's fun to look around on different websites regularly”. Participant 2 stated that the

purchases were planned, where it was further elaborated that the online purchasing activities

only occurred when the need was established “I online look for products that I know I need, for

example if I need a hoodie, I go online and buy a hoodie. If I need to buy food I plan it according

to my budget and try to stick to it as much as I can”.

Participant 1 said that online shopping is more common than in-store shopping, stating “I know

I am easily influenced by nice photos and pretty esthetics so in general I wouldn’t say that I

am an online shopaholic, but I also wouldn’t say that I am far from it”. Also continuing saying

that looking at websites often when bored.

Each and every participant recognized times where they had made an irrational online purchase.

Although four out of nine participants could not provide a specific example, they seemed sure

to have done it at some point. When asked to reflect upon it, participant 6 said “I probably

bought it because I thought I would need it in the future or felt good to buy it because the price

was reduced, and I thought I did a good deal or something” and some other participants

provided similar reasoning. Three participants that could remember specific purchases were

asked to reflect upon the driving force behind the impulse purchase they made: “ [...] I did it

just because it looked fun” (participant 4); “It was during a time when everyone had air pods

which I also wanted, but I was a student, I didn’t have a lot of money to spend [...]” (participant,

37

8). Participant 7 had once impulsively bought a vacation trip in the middle of the semester and

reflected that “there was no way we could just take a holiday somewhere and escape the stress,

even if we wanted to”.

All the participants were asked to evaluate if their online purchasing activities today are similar

to the way they were two years ago and to reflect on what has changed. Participant 1 said “I

don’t think I have ever purchased as many things online as I have done this year”. Five

participants in total expressed that they feel like their online purchases have increased, and

therefore would not describe their online purchasing activities the same as two years ago. Three

participants believed that their activities are more or less the same as two years ago. One

participant believed that her online purchases have decreased compared to two years ago and

added: “I think about my finances more than I did before. I have started saving money instead

of wasting it on things I may not need” (participant 3).

4.3 Identified dimensions

4.3.1 Financial

Price affects all the participants. The most common answers were that it depends on what they

buy. If a product is too expensive and exceeds the budget, it is not worth buying and they rather

wait for a sale. Participants 3, 4, 5, and 8 would buy an expensive product. Participant 3 states,

“I don’t buy expensive products, unless I really need it and it can’t wait”. While participant 4

put it differently: “If I find something that I really want or wanted, the price often does not

matter. But if I find something that is similar to what I intend to buy and is cheaper, I could

imagine buying it instead”.

38

Five out of nine participants mentioned that they search thoroughly through different websites

before purchasing to minimize the risk of buying the product too expensive. Participant 7 adds

items into the online basket but occasionally never goes through the entire purchase. She

argues, “I feel like if something is expensive online, I think about it more than I would if I would

buy it in a physical store. I don’t know why; I just do that. I always go online shopping and add

a ton of things into my basket and never go to actually buy them. I feel like, maybe because I

buy something online and it feels like it’s kind of further away and it’s not like the actual

product maybe, because you don’t have the physical touch to it in a way”.

Another method for finding the cheapest product was searching through different searching

engines. The few participants who mentioned physical stores stated how they compare the price

between online stores and physical stores before buying.

Seven participants prefer Klarna as the superior payment method. Four out of those seven

prefer Klarna because of several reasons. Since the physical stores have restrictions and

guidelines each customer needs to follow, some participants use Klarna because they can see

and feel the product before deciding the purchase online. Other reasons for using Klarna are

pausing the transaction if a problem arises, one could collect the digital invoices on the same

platform, and it is safe. Three out of those seven are participants 3, 8, and 9, who use Klarna

pay directly through the platform. Participants 3 and 9 used to postpone payments with Klarna

but explained that they no longer do. The pandemic caused participant 9 to change its payment

method when purchasing online. Participant 3 argues, “I do not think it is smart or sustainable

in the long run, because there is a risk that you order things that you cannot afford”.

39

A small number of participants also use Swish (a Swedish mobile payment app) as a direct

payment method when purchasing online because it is easy, and the transaction proceeds

directly. Those who use direct payment do not want to postpone any payments. Participant 6

expressed, “I prefer this because I do not want to pay by invoice or think about the payment

afterwards. I get stressed by the thought of having unpaid purchases”.

4.3.2 Performance

The most common answers were that the participants find products online through

recommendations from relatives and friends and/or from social media advertisements,

specifically Facebook and Instagram. Through influencers, the participants were inspired to

purchase the product. The participants’ frequent answers for using recommendations through

social media, relatives, and friends are to get a non-bias and good look at the product.

Participant 9 explains how the online stores approach the pandemic restrictions and how the

participant’s purchases are related to the approach: “It’s very interesting to see how the sites

have incorporated things like what is being done about corona. [...] for example, the online

retailer writes how they’re thinking about safety on the site and so on. It makes them look more

responsible. In a way, it's CSR. It affects me a little bit because… we're all in this together

when it comes to corona, and I am more inclined to trust the store that cares about this. Because

if I can be careful, then my store should be careful as well”.

The majority of the participants also have favorable or "go-to websites," as participant 2

expressed. Those websites are commonly used for purchasing a specific product or several

products.

Four participants use Google as a search engine tool to find a specific product and/ or review

of a specific product. However, two participants use Pricerunner to compare the price before

40

purchasing a product online after finding the product through recommendations or having used

Google. Few participants also mentioned how advertisements on different platforms are aimed

at their needs and desires. Those advertisements make one particular participant visit the

website, and in some cases, purchase the product.

All the participants' answers regarding the factors that motivates them to purchase online as an

alternative to in store, usually put emphasis on the same factors. The most common factor was

that online purchasing was preferred due to the Covid-19 restrictions. Since the restrictions

were limiting their abilities to go outside, online alternatives were convenient as an alternative.

Participant 2 said “Especially now during Covid-19 it is good to have that option since we are

not supposed to leave our homes all that much”. The majority of the participants believed that

their online shopping had increased since the pandemic, as their physical store shopping

decreased.

Another recurring answer that was given was that it was timesaving. One of the participants

said: “I prefer to shop online since I think it is most convenient for me timewise. Being a student

usually limits the time I have to search for the product I need in a physical store” (participant

2). Another participant said that “You save time, and also the range when it comes to online, is

wider and I can buy from different sites. I’m not only tied to certain physical stores'' (participant

5).

Another factor that was considered by four out of nine participants was the availability of

various ranges of products as well as price differences. They believed that it was easier to find

the same product at a lower price online than in a physical store.

41

Seven out of nine participants said that the most frequent products that were purchased online

were clothes. Five out of nine participants said that skincare and hygiene products were their

most frequent purchase. One participant said that during Covid-19 there had been an increase

in ordering food online (from restaurants), upon asking to elaborate why the response was “I

think, the fact that I’m at home, all the time. So, it’s kind of like, nicer to be home all the time

if you have nicer food. I feel like I have become lazier during Covid anyways, so it’s just nice.”

Another participant who started ordering their groceries during Covid-19 elaborated on the fact

that it was a necessity due to the risk of meeting other people in the stores.

Another category of products that was mentioned but not as common was technology and

different types of equipment. The participants who mentioned these categories said that they

had always purchased these items online and had not increased, decreased or been affected by

Covid-19.

Each and every participant used reviews as a way of searching for information before an online

purchase, especially if the online retailer were unfamiliar to them and they had not purchased

from them before. Many responded that they search online for other customers’ reviews on

several platforms, for example, Youtube and Facebook. Some asked about their friends’

experience as a form of collecting a review and recommendation.

4.3.3 Time

Upon asking the participants when they believed their online purchases increased and why,

there were a few answers that were reoccurring. One common answer was when the

participants felt depressed or bored. One participant explains that since she has been spending

a lot of time at home, she has had more time on her hands to go online and convince herself

that she needs the items. Another participant said that during the evenings when she is feeling

42

down, she likes to keep her thoughts occupied by online shopping since she cannot see her

friends.

Another common answer received was that the frequency increased when seasons changed or

in time for events like birthdays or holidays. Participant 9 said “the whole Christmas wave, for

example, it's inevitable. You realize you have to shop for gifts, and sometimes you remember

the last moment that you have to cover someone [....] But also, before summer, because I wear

more clothing. When the seasons change, then your wardrobe must change. Kind of like looking

for alternatives. Yeah, that's definitely a peak”. Similar replies were also received by a total of

six participants.

Only one person replied that the amount would increase at the end of the month, before

receiving his salary/student loan, which he elaborated is the time of the month when he knows

what amount he has available to spend when all his bills are paid.

Six out of nine participants implied that the pandemic had increased the amount and frequency

that they shop online. Participant 8 said “The amount has probably increased, because I buy

more online, and I don’t really go to stores anymore”. Two other participants made similar

comments that implied that in comparison to other points in their lives, during Covid-19 has

had the highest number of online orders in their lives. Both imply that the ease and availability

in range and different prices, in addition to the restrictions has resulted in them ordering more

at this point.

43

Three out of nine participants say that their online shopping has not increased nor decreased

during the pandemic. Participant 9, who due to the pandemic lost support of income, said the

following regarding how the pandemic had affected her purchasing activities: “my perspective

for online shopping has changed, but not the frequency. Although had I had the money, I would

increase it. It's a circular situation; because of Covid you shop online more, but because of

Covid you also don't have money”. The two other participants who claimed that their online

purchasing activities had not changed, argued that it was the same before and during. Both had

lost their part time jobs, which resulted in purchasing less in general, however their necessities

were purchased online, same as before the pandemic. “I don’t know… I usually buy a lot online,

especially if you compare it to how it was before corona. Now I buy a lot more online. On the

other hand, I have always been making purchases online, even before corona” (participant 8).

4.3.4 Psychological The participants had several financial fears. Some were afraid of ending up with debts, while

others had a similar fear: not being able to pay for the expenses. Both participants 5 and 7 were

afraid of losing their financial income source and required to apply for a new job during this

pandemic. Participant 5 reflected “Well… that will be to lose my job, I think. My invoices that

I get on the regular basis won’t be paid, and which also means that I have to go and search for

a new job, which is difficult during the ongoing pandemic”. Other common fears were losing

control over one’s economy and the fear of savings running out and ending up with no money.

Only one participant had a particular fear of making losses in her investments, specifically her

apartment and stocks.

There were several factors the participants took into consideration before making an online

transaction. Participants 1, 3, 5, and 7 thoughts of quality and price before purchasing online,

while participants 2, 4, 6, 8 believed that the website needed to be safe and secure to purchase

44

from. If the website is new and the participant does not have any history of previous purchases,

the participant can be more convenient by researching and finding reviews. The reason for

purchasing from a website that participant 6 trusts was: “I pay directly and not later by invoice.

I don't want my ID or bank account to be stolen”.

Another factor that the majority answered was that they purchase from websites that use well-

known delivery and payment options. When it comes to the delivery, the participants were

looking for smooth and easy delivery options. They mentioned Postnord (a Nordic postal

company) and Klarna (a Swedish fintech company) as an example of trustworthy options.

Participants 3 and 9 also argued how they trust Swedish companies more and it will simplify

to take legal actions if anything goes wrong. Participant 3 explains, “I usually have more trust

in Swedish companies since legally I have more rights and can take legal action if anything

goes wrong”.

The participants provided a variety of different answers on factors from online retailers that

affect their purchase. The most common answer revolved around available online reviews

provided by other customers. Participant 5 said “I usually buy if the majority of the comments

are positive”. Three participants emphasized shipping costs and return policies as important

factors, to which Participant 1 reflected “I think the whole point of purchasing online is to make

it easier and quicker. If it takes a lot of time to get the product, then the whole point is wasted”.

One participant expressed that the way the online retailers choose to present themselves is

important and that it would be concerning if they were not present on social media, for example,

not having an Instagram account. Price and discounts were factors that would affect two of the

participants.

45

Factors that would make the participants less likely to purchase from an online retailer included

shipping costs and delivery time, safe payment methods, the legitimacy of the online retailer

and how they decide to market themselves online. Two participants expressed that online

retailer sometimes use excessive advertisements for discount prices and therefore, they would

avoid them as it discourages them to buy. Regarding shipping costs and delivery time, two

participants said too high fees and too long delivery time makes them less likely to buy from

that online retailer. Participant 1 reasoned that “If they do not have Klarna, Qliro or PayPal, I

usually do not buy” about unfamiliar online retailers and their payment methods, and then

explained that it feels more safe, adding “ [...] because I trust Klarna”.

When asked how online retailers can increase trust, two aspects prevailed among the answers

of the participants: the marketing of the online retailer and customer support. Participant 6

explained “I find a trustworthy website to be full of information, whether it’s about the product

or contact information to the customer service”. Other similar answers referred to what extent

the online retailer engages with customers, transparency and what impressions the platform,

and the online retailer’s existence on it, gives the participants. Customer support was also

strongly emphasized by four participants, with examples such as how easy it is to get a hold of

them, to receive support quickly and to be politely assisted.

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5. Analysis The following chapter presents the empirical findings in relation to the literature. As defined in the operationalization table, the concepts are reoccurring in all four dimensions. The analysis is therefore presented in the seven concepts where the dimensions correlate in several concepts.

5.1 Digitalization

5.1.1 Payment methods

The majority of the participants were looking for a website with a payment method that could

fulfill the need to visit physical stores where you can feel and see the product. The guidelines

the citizens of Sweden need to follow had restricted people from some of their natural habits.

The students complement that habit by having products delivered home to see and feel before

deciding before deciding to commit to the purchase. One participant mentioned how she put

products into the online basket but never went through with the purchase. She considered it

related to the online product being too far away, compared to purchases in physical stores,

where you see and feel the actual product. The authors See-To et al. (2014) demonstrate in their

study that some shopping intentions do not lead to sales because people tend to use shopping

carts as a wish list for future purchases. The authors further state how the fulfillment of

purchases is related to the payment type. Klarna seems to have at least one digital function the

students are searching for. The participants did not explicitly mention Klarna as an easy

payment method, but according to Nur and Panggabean (2021) it can be argued that Klarna is

a preferred payment application for Generation Z. The students explained the benefits of using

Klarna, that is, pausing transactions, collecting digital invoices, paying directly, postponing the

payment, and most importantly, the safety of using Klarna. Customers often hesitate the online

purchase when entering and filling out private and risky information about themselves (See-To

et al., 2014). In general Generation Z worry about the security issues when doing online

47

transactions (Nur & Panggabean, 2021). The participants of this study find the safety of their

identity and credit card fraud as deciding factors for purchasing online. Additionally, Parida et

al. (2019) suggest that digitized payments have to be functional and easy to use. A small

number of the participants use Swish because of its ease and the functionality of it. Generation

Z is more likely to purchase from online shops if the mobile payment is easy to use. The money

is deducted from the account immediately. One participant expressed the stressful feeling of

having invoices and instead paid directly. One participant had found out that it is not profitable

to shop with invoices. The pandemic had her realize the risk of collecting unpaid purchases

that she might not afford in the end.

5.1.2 Distribution channels

One common way of finding products online was from social media advertisements. Students

got their motivation for purchase from the two major platforms, Facebook and Instagram. One

of the most preferred used distribution channels is Instagram (McGorry, 2017). Influencers and

ambassadors whom the participants follow for several reasons inspire them to buy the products

they use. Via influence marketing, companies distribute advertisements to target the right

customer by using influencers they trust (Kim & Kim, 2020).

Waldfogel (2017) talks about how big and broad the online audience is and how websites and

platforms reach out to many people. This could be compared to a physical store. Only those

who visit the store will be exposed to the products in that particular store. The ease of being

exposed to different advertisements has made it possible to see all sorts of products on different

platforms. Waldfogel (2017) further argues that the diverse form of accessing different

products has increased, and customers are now awash with products they desire. A few

participants talked about how they feel advertisements are aimed towards their needs and

desires. This could increase the purchase intent of those students. One particular student talked

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about her strategy for not being easily influenced on social media. By unfollowing influencers

and companies, she makes sure that she is not exposed to advertisements that could increase

the purchase intent.

Generation Z grew up during the era of the rapid growth of technology and are highly literate

(Miklosik et al., 2020). The amount of time they spend scrolling through different platforms

has increased for some students. It could increase online purchases since they are gradually

using digital technology to amuse and kill time when the students are bored.

5.2 Antecedents

5.2.1 Trust

Trust was found to be extremely important, although difficult to define in unity. Many of the

participants expressed that they purchase from online retailers that they already have purchased

from before and therefore also know what to expect from the transaction. This is in accordance

with familiarity being a complemental part of trust as Gefen (2000) suggested, because it made

the participants feel safer, to already be aware of the processes of transaction with that

particular online retailer. Interestingly enough, it was also expressed that well-known delivery

and payment methods increased their trust in the online retailer and as examples, Swedish

companies like Postnord and Klarna were given because it would be easier to take legal action

against them if anything goes wrong. This indicates that there is an amount of underlying

uncertainty and arguably, also a sense of lack of control in the transaction between the

participants and the online retailer (Bhattacherjee, 2002). Nevertheless, the participants

expressed considerable ways that online retailers, familiar or not, could increase their trust. The

most common answer to this revolved around positive reviews, the marketing of the online

retailer and its customer support.

49

The majority of participants actively searched for reviews and recommendations about the

online retailer and its product, mainly from social media and friends. Similar to Johnstone and

Lindh’s (2018) findings, the participants did find themselves inspired to purchase a product

when promoted by an influencer. However, they did not express it to be a significant influence

on indirect trust towards the online retailer. Rather, the existence of the online retailer itself on

social media platforms; existent positive reviews and transparency were of a stronger focus for

the willingness to trust the online retailer. This is in line with reputation, website quality and

first impressions of the web environment serving as trust enhancers (McKnight et al., 2002).

One participant plainly pointed out that it would be concerning to her if the online retailer was

not present on social media at all. Reasonably, this is true for many in today’s digitalized world.

Some also pointed out that inspiring and esthetic impressions of the online environment

influenced them strongly. Correspondingly, strong online presence (Vieira et al., 2020), brand

and user-generated posts (Djafarova & Bowes, 2021) and engaging with customers through

social media posts (Chen et al., 2015) were found to be of interest in the participants.

Kahawandala et al. (2002) suggest that Generation Z are inclined to seek information and in

line with this, the importance of available information was strongly expressed among the

participants. The reviews and recommendations collected, whether online or in real life, were

taken into consideration and evaluated. Moreover, the participants expected complete

transparency and accurate information from the platforms the retailers were present on. One

participant also emphasized the need for online retailers to show how they have adjusted their

business during and in accordance with Covid-19. Furthermore, another significant aspect to

increase trust was customer support: it had to be easy to reach them, receive help quickly and

conveniently, as well as to be met politely. If these elements were not efficient at the online

50

retailer, some of the participants would be discouraged to follow through with their intention

of purchasing at that retailer and perhaps, find another retailer who could provide them that

sense of trust.

Although it was clear that participant’s online purchase generally had increased since before

Covid-19, the participants do not blindly trust the online environment as a place for

transactions. Awareness and concerns regarding risks were often taken into consideration

before a purchase and thus, potentially act as a reducer in trust. Confidently and consciously,

these aspects were elaborated in regard to their decision-making process for online purchases.

In accordance with recent literature, it is common for Generation Z to take into consideration

these various elements before purchasing online due to high awareness of the online

environment (Tiwari & Joshi, 2020) and for this study, that was evidently true. No participants

advocated their reasoning regarding online trust to be an effect of Covid-19. Arguably, the

cognizant manner of navigating online has to do with being born into the digitalized world and

therefore, being highly aware of possible consequences of making an online purchase and

demanding certain attributes as a prerequisite.

5.2.2 Perceived Risk

As a result of the circumstances Covid-19 has brought onto society, such as loss of income, a

widespread fear of not being able to pay for one’s expenses or ending up with debts were shown

among all participants and can be seen as a financial risk in regard to online shopping. Online

consumers are known to be discouraged if they feel like a transaction is too much of a risk for

them (e.g., Ariffin et al., 2018). This was partly true for the participants as many were highly

aware of their financial status and tried to budget, find better prices and avoid unnecessary

purchases. Conversely, it was also recognized that their purchases were higher than before

51

Covid-19 and some elaboration upon that matter implied that it was a natural transition due to

the pandemic.

Ko et al. (2004) divided consumer’s perceived risk into four dimensions which influence the

decision to purchase online: performance, financial, time and psychological. These four aspects

were all found to be relevant in the answers of the participants. For example, the urge for full

product information provided by online retailers is arguably a way to reduce the performance

risk, because it gives a clear vision of what the quality of the product will be once delivered.

To be able to experience the product before actually paying for it, or to pause the payment if a

problem arises, Klarna was used by some participants and thus, served as a financial risk

reducer. Many participants recognized the variety of product options and prices online and

were positive towards the time saved when filtering through products online, and accordingly,

time risks of acquiring the product was reduced. One participant explicitly expressed the whole

point of online purchases being the reduced time of acquiring the product. The participants

advocated these different ways to avoid, or at least, decrease risks to achieve inner peace and

hence, drastically reduce the psychological risk.

Somewhat conflicting with Lee and Tan’s (2003) findings that state that consumers used to the

process of shopping online are more willing to take the risks that follows, the participants of

this study were reluctant to make exceptions if their demands - of the attributes which relate to

trust and perceived risk - were not met. Rather, they used the mentioned available mechanisms

to effectively reduce risk or even choose another online retailer. McKnight et al. (2002) propose

trusting belief and trusting intentions to be the foundation of trust and D’Alessandro et al.

(2012) suggest that increased trust is an effect of reduced perceived risk. However, the

empirical findings of this study strongly indicates that the participants make sure themselves -

52

by collecting available information and evaluating carefully - that they will not be purposely

deceived by the online retailer or have to put up with concerning feelings when deciding to go

through with the transaction. On one hand, this can vaguely be interpreted as the perceived

risks discourages them to buy online (e.g., Ariffin et al., 2018) as they might reconsider the

online retailer. On other hand, it can be strongly connected to the participants belonging to

Generation Z and possess their superior characteristics in regard to intuitively navigate in the

online environment (e.g., Kahawandala et al., 2020; Tiwari & Joshi, 2020) and creatively find

ways that fit them better as online consumers. Arguably, these online manners are what

decreases uncertainty and bypass excessive vulnerability (Chang et al., 2005; Gefen et al.,

2003), and makes the participants more confident once they decide to purchase online from an

online retailer.

5.2.3 Security and privacy issues

All the participants took payment methods into consideration before purchasing online. The

participants expressed high awareness about the potential risks for fraud and identity theft

through various payment methods (e.g., Hassan et al., 2020) and many participants stated that

online retailers who do not offer safe payment methods decrease their trust as a consumer and

thus, affect their online purchase intent. It was found that trusted third party payment methods,

such as Klarna, Qliro and Swish, were exceptionally popular and induced feelings of safety

since the online retailer did not directly have access to sensitive information. Instead, the

information was in the hands of a well-known third party. In line with Kimery and McCord

(2002) who suggest that trusted third parties allow new customers to predict reliability of the

online retailer, some participants would even avoid an online retailer who did not collaborate

with these as an option for payment. It is important to assure privacy and security for online

customers by being transparent and ethical when handling sensitive information (Chen & Dibb,

2010), and the option of providing credit or debit card information was found to be generally

53

avoided as the participants associated it with increased risk. Arguably, this is closely related to

trust and perceived risk factors discussed previously, and it was clear that the participants of

this study would rather not jeopardize their online safety by purposely exposing themselves to

vulnerability. Especially not with their identity online or financially. However, the attitudes

towards security and privacy online could not be associated as an effect of Covid-19. The most

obvious change for some participants due to Covid-19 was going from direct payment through

Klarna instead of getting an invoice by them.

5.2.4 Price orientation

Price affected all the participants and often, the participants considered if making the online

purchase exceeded their budget or if there was a better price available. Furthermore, too high

shipping fees and delivery were important to the majority of the participants and could

discourage them from making online purchases. This could possibly be explained by what

Lichtenstein et al. (1993) suggested to be some sort of trade-off between the quality of the

product in relation to what the consumer is paying in total to get it; however, put in an online

context. As Generation Z is also known to be generally more responsible with money (e.g.,

Kahawandala et al., 2020) and reflect over prices (e.g., Vieira et al., 2020), it is reasonable that

price would be of consideration in the participants. However, it could also be argued that it is

simply due to having a lower income (e.g., Suki, 2011) to spend and perhaps, even the fear of

financial scarcity; especially now during Covid-19.

Lee et al. (2016) claims that online price changes mostly provoke negative attitudes from

consumers. In line with this, two participants explicitly expressed that online retailer who

aggressively advertise products at discount prices make them less likely to buy from them.

Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2001) suggest that when a consumer desires to be stimulated, they

often make impulsive purchases which they refine by searching for a cheaper price. This was

54

found true for some of the participants that had made online purchases on which they thought

they made a good deal. Later, they had realized that they did not actually need the product, but

due to the price and the good feeling it gave them, they had made the transaction anyway. Many

of the participants expressed boredom during the pandemic due to restrictions keeping them at

home a lot, and arguably, the need for stimulation could thus be higher than normal. However,

even though the majority of participants recognized that their online purchases had increased

over the past two years mainly due to Covid-19 and the changes it has brought to society; some

participants pointed out that they were spending money online more mindfully nowadays.

5.2.5 Time consciousness

In regard to time consciousness and management in an online shopping context, the majority

of the participants believed that they saved time doing their shopping online, which to certain

extent has made their lives easier. However, many of the participants also argue that the reason

they shop online is to be able to bargain and save money, whilst during Covid-19 the reason

changed to having more time on their hands as well as due to restrictions that caused them to

avoid visiting stores physically. This also correlates with the study by Nirmala and Dewi (2011)

which suggests that experienced online shoppers are prone to look for effortlessness in their

online shopping process in order to save time. The overall impression of the majority of the

participants seemed unanimous in the fact that online retailers have developed and made online

shopping more convenient, easy to use and more accessible both in practical areas such as

developed payment methods, as well as broader range of products.

One aspect that is worth highlighting is that the participants’ purchasing had increased and so

had their time spending looking at products online. Many of the participants argued that the

reason behind this was the fact they were home “all day” and would by the end of the day

usually be bored, and in order to keep themselves occupied they spent more time online looking

55

at products and “window shopping”. Although some argued that the purchases were done

during the day, to make sure they were rational, overall, there is a notable increase in the time

the participants spent online searching for their products before deciding to purchase the item.

Arguably, the intent could depend on the fact that the students only spend money on what they

know they can afford to spend on, but the time spared by the restrictions is redundant making

it quite obvious that the purchasing patterns are affected by the fact that the students having

more time to spare at the end of the day.

5.3 Possible outcome

The problem area suggests that people act irrationally during crisis situations which would

mean that impulsiveness should have had to increase during the pandemic. However, the

findings of this study do not indicate that impulsiveness has increased. Rather, the online

purchases have become more planned and deliberate. Chih et al. (2012) argued that people are

more likely to make a purchase on impulse when feeling positive and being in a good mood.

However, detected in this study, the students’ impulsive purchases were driven by boredom

and loneliness.

Furthermore, the literature suggests that experimental shoppers look for experiences and

excitement when shopping (Wolfinbarger and Gilly 2001), which becomes even more apparent

due to the circumstances Covid-19 pandemic and the students feeling under-stimulated. Even

though the majority of the participants said and believed that their purchases were planned and

rationally motivated, many also believed that their online activities (purchasing, price

comparison, scrolling, etc.) had increased since they were bored and had more time on their

hands. This could suggest that some purchases were in fact made impulsively to stimulate

excitement during a less stimulating and positive time.

56

The literature also suggests that women are more likely to make an irrational or impulsive

purchase (Djafarova and Bowes, 2021), however, all participants said that they had made an

irrational purchase at one point or another. An interesting observation can be noted in the fact

that the only male participant seemed to refrain from purchasing unless the product was really

needed (vital/essential), which cannot really be said about the female participants. One of the

female students even said that she knew that pretty photos and inspiration pages on social media

affected her online purchasing a lot, which in other words shows that she is emotionally driven

in her purchase intent. This aspect points more to the favor of what the literature suggests - that

the likelihood for a female to make an impulsive purchase when exposed to creative online

advertisement, is greater than for a male (Djafarova and Bowes, 2021).

57

6. Conclusion This study was conducted to investigate how Covid-19 has impacted online purchase intent in

students. The participating students of this study belonged to Generation Z as it was the specific

consumer group examined, and were located within Mälardalen region, Sweden. Online

purchase intent is affected by both external and internal driving forces, and it was found that

online purchasing during Covid-19 has clearly increased in Generation Z students and thus,

affecting their online purchase intent as well. Many of the students had transitioned to more

online shopping instead of in store and presumably, this is due to governmental

recommendations and restrictions regarding Covid-19 to stay safe during the global crisis.

However, in conflict with existing and recent literature which suggest that crises provoke

impulsive consumption (Eger et al., 2021; Li et al., 2020), increased impulsiveness could not

be concluded in the students of this study. In accordance with the characteristics of Generation

Z, the students thoroughly contemplate their online purchases on a considerable level before

actually purchasing. The students highly valued their online safety and showed high awareness

of their specific demands on features provided by online retailers in order to make an online

purchase, even more now than they had before the pandemic. Although Covid-19 has left the

students with extra leisure time which often was spent online looking at different retailers, the

fear of financial scarcity also coerced the students to save more money than they had before

the pandemic.

6.1 Limitation and future research

The primary limitation of this study is that the concepts examined and focused on are of a small

scope due to their relevance for the consumer group chosen, and therefore, do not cover all

aspects and elements of online consumer behavior, online purchase intent and impulsive

58

shopping. Thus, other elements to the topic of this study which might be of interest, may have

been neglected. The lasting effects of Covid-19 and its impact on online purchase intent is yet

to be discovered. Theoretical contributions of this study can aid future research to investigate

students’ online purchase intent post-pandemic and thus, better understand lasting changes in

online purchase intent due to global crises. Managerial implications of the results of this study

strongly indicate that online retailers must adapt to the highly cognizant online navigators

which are soon to be the predominant consumer segment. The circumstances of the pandemic

have forced businesses to accelerate and improve their online presence in order to keep

customers. Therefore, building on this study can assist businesses to develop a better and more

fit online e-commerce strategy post Covid-19 which targets Generation Z as a consumer

segment. This study revealed that Generation Z students put specific demands on online

retailers even more than they had before the pandemic, and therefore, it is highly relevant for

online retailers to understand Generation Z students’ online purchase intent in order to adapt

and improve their e-commerce strategies both during and perhaps, post Covid-19.

59

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Appendices

Appendix A: Interview questions

1. (How) has the pandemic affected you financially? 2. Describe your biggest financial fear 3. Can you elaborate to what extent price affects your online purchase? 4. Can you describe your preferred payment method and why it is preferred? 5. Where do you find your products online, and how? 6. What factors do you take into consideration before making an online transaction? 7. Explain the factors that motivate you to purchase online as an alternative to in store,

or vice versa 8. What are the most frequent online purchases you make? 9. In your experience, when would you describe that your online purchases would

increase, and why? 10. (How) has the pandemic affected the amount and frequency that you purchase online? 11. How would you describe your online purchasing activities in general? 12. In your opinion, what are the factors from online retailers that affect your purchase

online? 13. (How) do you search for information before purchasing online? 14. What factors would make you less likely to purchase from an online retailer? 15. Give us some examples on how online retailers can increase your trust 16. Give us some examples of a time when you made an irrational online purchase: i.e.

something that you perhaps did not need, but bought anyway - why did you do it? 17. After all that has been discussed, would you describe your online purchasing activities

the same two years ago? - What has changed and how?

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Appendix B: Fill-out form

1. What gender do you identify with?

❏ Female ❏ Male ❏ Other

2. When were you born?

❏ 1995 ❏ 1996 ❏ 1997 ❏ 1998 ❏ 1999

3. What school do you go to? ______________________________________________ 4. What year/grade?

❏ First ❏ Second ❏ Third ❏ Fourth ❏ Fifth

5. Are you currently taking a student loan?

❏ Yes ❏ No

6. Do you have a part-time job?

❏ Yes ❏ No

7. Approximately yearly income (including loan) * _____________________________________________ 8. What language do you prefer to conduct the interview in?

❏ Swedish ❏ English

*Optional