Germophobia's Impact on Consumer Buying Behaviour during Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

For the last few months, human beings throughout the globe suffering from germ phobia which is the direct consequence of Wuhan originated Novel Coronavirus. COVID-19 which is the scientific name of this virus-related disease makes some psychological terror in the minds of general human beings who are never expected to have such struggles like that of the lockdown or social distancing! Constantly washing hands with soaps or hand washes or use sanitizers or using masks or wearing PPE for healthcare professionals-all are the hygienic manners that we are using first time in our experiences! And this is due to the germ phobia which we experience in the realm of the pandemic. We are now so scared with this germ phobia that we even avoid our near and dear ones to visit or handshakes. This is a peculiar situation on this earth and civilization and even WHO said that we have to practice our lives with this virus for long! So the common question is that how we overcome germ phobia and satisfy ourselves with normal world order and behavioral codes. Fear of germ phobia affects many ways to human beings but here we are discussing the impact of germ phobia on consumer buying behavior during the lockdown. What is the spending pattern, what type of goods consumer want to purchase, mode of purchase, frequency of purchase etc. are the questions try to discuss in this paper? Here we choose 120 samples through the convenience sampling technique and used a questionnaire survey research design through Google form by asking dichotomous questions from respondents. The data was analyzed and interpreted through SPSS software. It is concluded that buying behavior was influence by germ phobia during the lockdown. In the end, we try to give some suggestions to overcome the problems.