A SURVEY ON THE IMPACT OF LOCKDOWN ON RETAIL BUSINESS

The whole world is passing through an unprecedented situation since 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. Retail businesses in India were massively disrupted due to demand-supply shock and disruption of the supply chain. In the present study, an attempt was made to observe how the pandemic had affected the retail businesses, their turnover, their customers’ preferences, their discount policies, etc. through a representative survey conducted in and around Kolkata. For the purpose of the study two sets of cross-sectional data were collected with the help of questionnaire. It was observed from the study that most of the retail businesses, especially non-essential retail segments were adversely affected due to decline in monthly average turnover, less number of customers’ visit to retail stores and less amount of money spent on it. Demand of essential products like groceries, medicines, agricultural products, foods hygiene products etc. increased during the period of crisis. Consumers focused more on value based purchasing that they shifted their spending pattern from grooming products to personal care hygiene products.