Digitizing economies: changes in consumers purchase

Abstract

With globalization governing the world, increasing competition beyond borders, companies have seen their market share shrink and their profits disappear. This phenomenon gave rise to the e-commerce, a key platform to streamline globalization. However, some parts of the world were still shy in adopting e-commerce for their daily transactions, particularly the Middle East region. It wasn’t until the surge the COVID-19 pandemic, that e-commerce made its way to every corner of the globe and became part of the daily lives of the citizens of the world, including the Middle East. The question that we attempt to answer in this thesis is whether the transition to digital economies was successful by looking at how well consumers adapted to the new normal and changed their buying behavior? A survey targeting 200 respondents was conducted to answer the question, in addition to factual data on purchase behavior of citizen and residents of Saudi Arabia. Results have supported the hypotheses by concluding a direct correlation between digitizing economies and the change in consumers’ buying behavior, where people started to transact online whether by using social media platforms, downloading digital wallets or executing simple online transaction, which will in turn, help businesses survive by maintaining their profits.