Martin Hulényi

Martin Hulényi

PhD candidate in economics

🏛️ LEM (Université de Lille)
🏛️ DAStU (Politecnico Milano)

Who bought online during the COVID-19 pandemic? The Italian case study

Co-authored with Tommaso Cigognetti , Ilaria Mariotti and Federica Rossi .

Abstract

The rise of digitalisation is closely linked to the expansion of B2C e-commerce, a trend significantly accelerated by the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, movement limitations prompted a substantial shift toward online shopping, compelling quick adaptions from consumers and producers. This transformation has altered regions’ and cities’ spatial and territorial dynamics, highlighting the need for effective logistics optimisation. To address this, it is crucial to understand the profiles of e-commerce customers. The paper aims to analyse the socio-demographic and economic factors influencing the propensity to shop online in Italy before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. To pursue this aim, data from the ISTAT Aspects of Everyday Life household survey are analyzed through a logit model. Results provide new insights into how the pandemic has reshaped the characteristics of online consumers, offering valuable information and recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders in the e-commerce sector.

Motivation

  • COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increase in B2C e-commerce.
  • Evidence on their effect on regional growth rates is mixed, possibly also due to overlooked endogeneity or spillover effects (Dall’erba and Fang, 2017).

Research question

  • What are the socio-economic determinants of the propensity to shop online?
  • How was the impact of these characteristics influenced by COVID-19?
  • What are the socio-economic determinants of the amount spent on online shopping?

Contribution

  • Use of official survey (ISTAT Aspects of Everyday Life) to evaluate the socioeconomic determinants of propensity to buy online, and how it changed during COVID-19 pandemic. We also use the survey to evaluate the online spending.

Empirical strategy

  • Profiling the socio-economic characteristics that influence an individual’s propensity to purchase goods and services online, how it changed during COVID-19 pandemic and socio-economic determinants of higher spending on online shopping.
  • Dependent variable: if a person bought a product or a service online in the past three months and category of spending on e-commerce.
  • Variables of interest: socio-economic characteristics of an individual (gender, age, household resources, loseness of emnities).
  • Control variables: regional fixed effects and municipality size category.
  • Method: logit and ordinal logit.

Result

  • Online shopping propensity is higher among younger, wealthier, male individuals and those closer to amenities; during the pandemic, age and income disparities widened, gender gaps narrowed.
  • Higher spending was concentrated among men, wealthier, and middle-aged (35–54) consumers.