The Use of Social Media and Its Impact on Shopping Behavior of Slovak and Italian Consumers during COVID-19 Pandemic

Ali Taha, Viktória; Pencarelli, Tonino; Škerháková, Veronika; Fedorko, Richard; Košíková, Martina

doi:10.3390/su13041710

Open AccessArticle

The Use of Social Media and Its Impact on Shopping Behavior of Slovak and Italian Consumers during COVID-19 Pandemic

by

Viktória Ali Taha

^1,*

,

Tonino Pencarelli

²

,

Veronika Škerháková

¹

,

Richard Fedorko

¹ and

Martina Košíková

¹

Faculty of Management, University of Prešov, 08001 Prešov, Slovakia

²

Faculty of Economics, University Urbino Carlo Bo, 61029 Urbino, Italy

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1710; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041710

Submission received: 30 December 2020 / Revised: 28 January 2021 / Accepted: 2 February 2021 / Published: 5 February 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Media Influence on Consumer Behaviour)

Download Review Reports Versions Notes

Abstract

The coronavirus crisis hit the world and affected all aspects of our lives, including consumers’ habits, preferences, and shopping behaviors. The survey, which involved 937 respondents from two countries, examined how the pandemic affected shopping behavior and consumer preferences in Italy and Slovakia. This paper aims to explore the impact of social media on consumer behavior, more specifically, it examines the influence of social media on the preference of specific e-shops during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used to determine a statistically significant relationship between the variables and the Mann–Whitney U test and the Kruskal–Wallis H test to assess the significance of differences between respondents in terms of demographic characteristics (residence, age, and gender). The results revealed the existence of statistically significant differences in the use of social media during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of various demographic factors as well as a relatively weak relationship between the social media used and the purchase in the e-shop promoted on the social media.

Keywords: consumer behavior; social media; COVID-19 pandemic and online shopping

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Ali Taha, V.; Pencarelli, T.; Škerháková, V.; Fedorko, R.; Košíková, M. The Use of Social Media and Its Impact on Shopping Behavior of Slovak and Italian Consumers during COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability 2021, 13, 1710. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041710

AMA Style

Ali Taha V, Pencarelli T, Škerháková V, Fedorko R, Košíková M. The Use of Social Media and Its Impact on Shopping Behavior of Slovak and Italian Consumers during COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability. 2021; 13(4):1710. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041710

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ali Taha, Viktória, Tonino Pencarelli, Veronika Škerháková, Richard Fedorko, and Martina Košíková. 2021. "The Use of Social Media and Its Impact on Shopping Behavior of Slovak and Italian Consumers during COVID-19 Pandemic" Sustainability 13, no. 4: 1710. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041710

APA Style

Ali Taha, V., Pencarelli, T., Škerháková, V., Fedorko, R., & Košíková, M. (2021). The Use of Social Media and Its Impact on Shopping Behavior of Slovak and Italian Consumers during COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability, 13(4), 1710. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041710

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Menu

The Use of Social Media and Its Impact on Shopping Behavior of Slovak and Italian Consumers during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI