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PEOPLE’s shopping patterns are starting to enter a balance phase between online and offline channels following changes in behavior that have occurred in recent years.
Marketing expert and Managing Partner of Inventure Indonesia Yuswohady said that the shift in shopping behavior from offline to online that occurred before the pandemic accelerated when the COVID-19 pandemic limited people’s direct activities.
“Before the pandemic, there was naturally a shift from offline to online. Then the pandemic accelerated, almost forced it, so there was a boom,” said Yuswohady when contacted by ANTARA on the occasion of National Customer Day, Saturday.
According to him, the surge in use of online channels then lasted for several years. However, after more than five years since the pandemic, this pattern has begun to change and society is no longer moving in one direction towards digital channels.
“Now, in my opinion, is the time, because it has been more than five years, and the offline and online levels have started to reach a balance point,” he said.
Yuswohady believes that this condition shows that changes in consumer behavior do not always occur in a linear manner. The development of digital channels has indeed changed people’s shopping habits, but the use of offline channels remains part of consumption patterns.
He said the current conditions were different from the period when people seemed to have switched to using online channels fully. After going through the accelerated digitalization phase during the pandemic, the use of online and offline channels is starting to form more naturally.
“In the past, it was like everyone went online, but now I think a natural equilibrium has begun to form between offline and online,” he said.
This balance, according to Yuswohady, is an illustration that online and offline channels will continue to be present in people’s shopping behavior. Consumers no longer have to choose one channel absolutely because developments in shopping behavior show that there is room for both to coexist.
This change also marks a new phase after the acceleration of digitalization that occurred during the pandemic. If at that time online channels were the main choice due to limited physical activity, post-pandemic conditions show a more balanced pattern between the use of digital channels and physical channels.
Thus, the current development of people’s shopping is no longer solely marked by a shift from offline to online, but is starting to show the formation of a balance in the use of the two channels. [antaranews]
