Impacts of Covid‐19 pandemic on consumer behavior in Turkey: A qualitative study

• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Author: Aybegüm Güngördü Belbağ
• Date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12423

SPECIAL ISSUE

Impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on consumer

behavior in Turkey: A qualitative study

Aybegüm Güngördü Belba

g

Department of Business Administration,

Bartın University, Bartın, Turkey

Correspondence

Aybegüm Güngördü Belba

g, Department

of Business Administration, Bartın

University, Bartın, Turkey.

Email: aybegum.gungordu@gmail.com

Abstract

The current study aims to examine consumer behavior

in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic and how con-

sumers adapt to this new normal. In this regard, 78 Turkish

consumers were interviewed online. Data were analyzed

through grounded theory with a stimulus-organism-

response framework and constant comparative methods.

This study showed that environmental stimuli affecting

consumer behavior during the pandemic are economic

downturn, partial lockdown regulations, restrictions on

some services, and social media messages. Organism con-

sists of fear, boredom, and perceived risk. Consumers'

behavioral responses to the pandemic are changes in pur-

chasing of consumer goods, avoidance from physical

stores, a decline in leisure activities, a decline in shopping

frequency, planned vs. impulse buying, stockpiling, and

prosumption. Overall, this study provides a more general

framework regarding multiple aspects of the pandemic on

consumer behavior.

KEYWORDS

consumer behavior, consumption, COVID-19, pandemic,

Turkey

1|INTRODUCTION

Covid-19 was first seen in Wuhan, China in December 2019. It spread to the other parts of the

world at an extraordinary speed. Countries closed their borders, businesses, and carried out full

Received: 15 November 2020 Revised: 5 April 2021 Accepted: 29 October 2021

DOI: 10.1111/joca.12423

© 2021 American Council on Consumer Interests.

J Consum Aff. 2022;56:339–358. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joca 339

or partial lockdowns. Decisions made at national levels have led to the questioning of unions

(e.g., European Union) and globalization (Alon, 2020). For instance, EU member states did not

send protective equipment to Italy, despite Italy's call for help (The Guardian, 2020). There are

ongoing concerns about a more protectionist, nationalist, and localized world. Xenophobic ten-

dencies toward people from Asian ethnicity have increased (BBC, 2020). Many countries have

started to lose their trust in international institutions such as the WHO (Alon, 2020). While the

pandemic was strengthening, countries began to feel economic downfalls. Consumers in differ-

ent countries are mostly pessimistic about the economic conditions (Mckinsey, 2020).

According to the World Bank (2020), advanced economies will probably shrink by 7% and

global GDP will shrink by 5.2%. The pandemic affected international business (Alon, 2020;

Bretas & Alon, 2020; Kerr, 2020) and sectors of tourism (Kaushal & Srivastava, 2021), sports

(Bond et al., 2021; Horky, 2021), hospitality (Alonso et al., 2020; Hall et al., 2020; Huang et al.,

2020), education (Rana et al., 2020), health (Shadmi et al., 2020), food (Hassen et al., 2020; Yu

et al., 2020), energy (Aruga et al., 2020), tobacco (Gaunkar et al., 2020), transportation (espe-

cially, air travel), production and logistics in all over the world. Furthermore, take-outs, alcohol

consumption, even gun-buying increased (Hill, 2020) and online shopping, saving, buying fur-

niture, and home décor will further increase (Belk, 2020). Foreign traveling, going to movies,

sports, and concerts, and buying cars will decrease (Belk, 2020). Consumers mostly miss eating

out, restaurants, and travel (Belk, 2020). Trust to the data coming from authoritarian countries

such as China and Iran decreased, and China may lose its reputation of being the World's work-

shop (Alon, 2020). Although capitalism and neoliberal policies promote especially the middle

classes to consume more, the pandemic resulted in unstable consumption adequacy that relates

to market vulnerability (Hill, 2020). Therefore, Kotler (2020) claims that capitalism will evolve

based on social justice and democracy after the pandemic which will result in a post-

consumerist era.

At the beginning of the pandemic in the world, Turkey was not aware of the global pan-

demic as well as the other countries in the World. The first case was recorded on March

10, 2020, and the first death related to COVID-19 was confirmed on March 15, 2020. As of April

5, 2021, Turkey remains 8th on the Coronovirus Map List due to its total cases

(Worldometers, 2020). The first precautions inside the country were taken in March 2020 by

disinfecting public places and placing sanitizers. Thousands of people were put into quarantine;

schools, universities, and most of the businesses were locked down in line with other parts of

the World. The country closed its borders to tourists. Traveling between cities were banned.

Furthermore, the government declared a partial curfew at weekends until June. By June 2020,

all businesses were opened again, and borders began to accept tourists. Tourism revenues

account for most of the GDP in Turkey, therefore the country was affected deeply, and its econ-

omy is expected to shrink by 3.8% in 2020 (World Bank, 2020). Çakmaklıet al. (2020) indicate

that to face minimum economic costs and save maximum lives, there must be 39 days of full

lockdown. Yet, the Turkish government advises wearing masks, personal hygiene, and social

distancing right now, and instead of a full lockdown, they prefer partial lockdowns from time

to time. Precautions differ by cities due to the severity of the pandemic in that city. While

schools and universities continue online education in all cities, restaurants and coffee shops are

closed on Sundays in risky cities.

Scholars define the COVID-19 pandemic as a traumatic event (Kunimura, 2020). Disruption

in consumption has occurred during the pandemic like the great wars and depressions in his-

tory. Consumers' psychology is affected by the pandemic in general which led them to change

their consumption habits with the pandemic all over the world. The pandemic affected

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