The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Behaviours of Polish Consumers in the Organic Products Market

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to verify whether the COVID-19 pandemic affects customers’ behaviours. The examined behaviours are: buying Polish products, buying organic products, buying more at one time, paying attention to prices, asking others to go shopping, and shopping online. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted. The questionnaire was completed by 1000 Polish consumers. The collected data were analysed statistically, and it was shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has an influence on consumers’ behaviours. This is particularly visible in paying attention to prices more frequently, more frequent online shopping, and more frequent purchases of larger amounts of products. Consumers are more likely to buy Polish products and organic products. The largest changes in behaviour were observed among women, people aged under 35, people with higher education, and those with the highest incomes per family member. The research identified the group of consumers who more often do online shopping, purchase more products, and more often buy Polish and organic products; this information may be used by commercial enterprises to create sales strategies. It is advisable to develop online sales and to display information about the fact that products are made in Poland, and information about their ecological origin. The value of this article is to identify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer behaviour in the organic market in Poland, to identify groups of consumers whose behaviour has changed, and to indicate the directions of those changes.