The impact of Covid-19 on the online sales of soft drinks

Abstract

The world has been living under the devastating effects of Coronavirus disease over two years. In order to fight with this virus, governments and people took some precautions. Social distancing, staying at home, and curfews are the most popular ones. Education and business transported to the Internet. Online meetings, distant lectures were replaced to face-to-face meetings and traditional lectures. On the other hand, these restrictions accelerated the digitalization and increased the use of the Internet. E-commerce became more important than before. People’s shopping pattern has changed in the days of the pandemic. Demand for certain products increased. However, due to restrictions, people shopped in panic, and it became hard to find some products. Moreover, people stocked some products in order not to be affected by price increase or face the fear of unavailability People started to order the things they did not order before. Fast moving consumer goods are one of these the products that are sold rapidly. It is easy to find FMCG products both online and offline. FMCG category is one of the most growing categories in e commerce. Soft drinks are one of the sub-categories of FMCG and refer to the non alcoholic cold beverages. In this study, secondary data from the market leader company in soft drinks category and e-commerce data of its products. Quantitative analysis is conducted to understand the relation between the pandemic (and lockdowns) and the online sales of the Coca-Cola products. Findings show that there is an increase on the sales of these products through the online channels after the pandemic and the curfew affects sales to consumers.