My Predictions: Coronavirus Will Change Lifestyles and Consumer Habits in the Future
Some, but not so much in the long run
It’s a pretty tricky question, like all questions about bold predictions of the future.
But I’ll play the analyst, since it cost me nothing to be wrong ;)
Not Much Will Change
In the long run, that is. Plenty of people has been forced to change their normal environment and behaviors. Change in the environment often causes a change in habits. So, people did develop new lifestyle and consumer habits.
But a lot of those changes may not survive beyond the end of the lockdown. When we will be back in our previous environment, our old habits will get their triggers back and we will easily fall back into them.
Also, new habits will lose their triggers and it means the new behaviors will disappear. No trigger, no habit, it is as simple as that.
But Some Will Change
We are imprisoned in our homes, so quite a lot of new triggers may survive beyond the lockdown.
I’m afraid, quite a lot of new lifestyle and consumer habits will be the bad ones. Eating sweets to soothe yourself. Drinking alcohol to feel alive. Sitting in front of the TV and following the news. And plenty of others.
They are easy. They provide instant gratification. They develop fast. They sneak under our radar since they make us feel good almost immediately.
Thus, I predict of an epidemic of alcoholism, obesity, sedentary behaviors and other modern lifestyle curses.
Personalized Deliveries
One consumer behavior I can predict with some level of certainty will be an increase in on-call shopping. My local farmer market was shut down on Friday. Which, by the way, is one of the most stupid decisions ever. You can get infected much faster in a supermarket than at the open-air market.
Polish farmers are entrepreneurial. Plenty of them announced on social media that they will collect orders via phone and deliver them at doorsteps.
I will choose this form of shopping over going to the market every single time. My time is worth much more than the delivery fee.
Online Shopping
Also, plenty of people who had no experience with online shopping at all have been/ will be forced to shop online. They felt no need for shopping online for various reasons and now they will discover how easy, great, fun, and fast this experience is.
They will continue to buy online after the lockdown. Even if this shift applies to only 5% of the consumers, it’s still l5% of the market. I predict, it will be more. Online stores will grow. Brick and mortar businesses will suffer.
Originally published on Quora.
