Welcome to the Delta economy: you can’t always get what you want when you want it

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For years, Amazon and the rise of online shopping have shaped consumers to expect everything from groceries to furniture delivered to their doors at the click of a button. Although the pandemic introduced many people to online shopping for the first time, the disruptions in the global supply chain that have occurred over the past 18 months have forced people to face unimaginable experiences: the shortage of products. Extended delays. Frustration so they can’t get goods right away. Depending on where you are, even buying a smoothie at McDonald’s can be a challenge.
Now, shoppers are heading into the holiday buying rush in the face of the prospect of shortages or additional delays, despite large chain tactics such as ordering products soon, renting their own boats and bringing goods to the foreign by air.

“Delays during the pandemic have caused a lot of pain in terms of slowing down instant satisfaction and efficiency. Now consumers are trying to recalibrate themselves,” said Ashwani Monga, a marketing professor at Rutgers Business School and author of the book Becoming a consumer psychologist.

Climate change can mean that product delays become a part of buyers ’long-term daily lives. Even after the decline in Covid-19 cases, natural disasters and extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change threaten to disrupt supply chains around the world.

“It will continue to drive these differences in where people buy, how they buy, and what their expectations are,” said Deidre Popovich, assistant professor of marketing at Texas Tech University. “He won’t leave.”

Experts studying consumer psychology claim that changing the pandemic era from instant gratification to uncertainty about when material will be available will have lasting effects on buyers ’habits in three main ways.

Storage

The maritime shift in consumer expectations began last year with a rush to stores to stock up on groceries and basic household items. The toilet paper aisles were cleaned. Finding Purell or Lysol was like winning the lottery.

Shoppers stored products at the beginning of the pandemic, fears that would not be enough to buy the next time they visited a store and many continued to buy in bulk. Today, store shelves are not as bare as they were then. But storage will be the new normal, Monga believes.

Memories of shortages and delays over the past 18 months will lead people to continue planning ahead and keep more staples like packaged food and basic household items than before.

“Unless consumers have confidence in the functioning of the market, they will continue to store,” he said.

Replacement of expensive items before

Although last year the demand for toilet paper and cleaning wipes was fixed last year, supply chain problems appeared elsewhere in the supply chain. Some models of laptops, grills and furniture became difficult to acquire in time.

Consumers generally do not store durable goods such as washing machines and refrigerators because they do not have the space at home or the cash to buy them. But Monga believes customers will be more willing to replace these products sooner than before, as they won’t want to risk having the product run out when they need it most.

“Consumers will want to replace the goods at the first sign of trouble instead of waiting until some failure occurs,” he said.

Both trends (storage and previous replacement cycles) will be “good news in advance” for retailers like this as Monga predicts, such as Amazon and home improvement stores, such as Home Depot, because demand will remain high. But it will also keep up the pressure on its supply chains to continue producing goods.

Moving on to new websites and brands

Second-hand clothing retailers, such as Poshmark and OfferUp, have taken off in recent years thanks to shoppers looking for luxury items, as well as the growing demand from eco-friendly customers. The growth of online shopping has made it easier for people who want to clean their closets to connect with eager shoppers.

Popovich of Texas Tech said that in the long run, consumers will be more likely to search stores and platforms they’ve never tried, such as second-hand clothing sites or Facebook Marketplace, when they can’t find what they’re looking for. . This could open up opportunities for new companies under the radar to gain popularity.

“One implication will be that people are willing to consider other options that they were not willing to consider before in terms of both the channel and the used purchase, rather than new ones,” he said.

Even consumers can savor long-awaited products more than before.

“If I know I have to wait six months to get this couch, once I have it, I love it so much more than a couch that I could have delivered in two days,” he said.

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