COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Customer Loyalty Factors in Russian E-Commerce Market

The main objective of this paper is to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on customer loyalty factors in the Russian e-commerce market. The pandemic has dramatically changed consumer behavior in e-commerce. Russia's e-commerce has grown significantly since 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new customers entering the online market and an increase in online shopping frequency due to the quarantine are among the reasons for the growth in the financial value of Russia's e-commerce. There was a 44% growth of the industry in 2020 compared to 2019. To explore the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on customer loyalty factors, quantitative empirical data was gathered in 2019 and 2020, with 836 and 926 accurate observations respectively. Methods of exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and the t-test were used to analyze the data along with the validity and reliability indices. After confirming the CFA model, nine constructs affecting consumer loyalty in 2019 and 2020 were examined to investigate possible changes in the mean values of their indicators. The results showed that factors Consumer satisfaction, Ease of making online purchases, e-WOM, and Number of reviews have a statistically significant difference in the mean value of the indicators between Pre- and the COVID-19 era. These findings can help Russian online business managers to adapt to changes in consumer behavior. To enhance e-WOM, having a platform to get customer feedback and understand their perception about the service and product is recommended.