Does COVID-19 Promote Self-Service Usage among Modern Shoppers? An Exploration of Pandemic-Driven Behavioural Changes in Self-Collection Users

Wang, Xueqin; Wong, Yiik Diew; Yuen, Kum Fai

Due to health concerns related to COVID-19, shoppers have learned to minimise social contact by adopting various contactless self-service technologies to fulfil their consumption needs. This study explores shoppers’ behavioural changes in relation to self-service, using the special research context of e-commerce self-collection services. By synthesising insights from the health psychology literature, this study proposes an affective-cognitive-social perspective to explain the pandemic-driven behavioural changes of self-collection users. The survey instrument is used for online data collection (n = 500), and a combined (descriptive and quantitative) method is adopted for data analysis. Our results suggest that, although with a relatively weak predictive power, the affective and cognitive appraisals of health risks lead to the reinforced usage of self-collection service. This also applies to the factors of action/coping planning and subjective norm. This study theoretically contributes to the self-service literature and creates managerial implications for retailers and logistics operators.