An Assessment of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Consumer Behavior Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process Model

Consumer behavior is dynamic and can shift rapidly due to various factors. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced unprecedented market disruptions, prompting unique consumer reactions. Our foundational study dissected factors affecting consumer habits, laying the groundwork for a focused analysis of how individual consumption was impacted during the pandemic. Significantly, psychological influences emerged as a key determinant of consumer behavior in our prior findings, leading us to centralize the pandemic's effect in our recent research. We undertook this analysis using data from 559 participants from the Republic of Croatia. Utilizing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), typically applied in analyses of decision making in businesses, we ranked the influences on consumer purchasing patterns amidst the pandemic. Our findings underscored the profound influence of these factors on consumer behavior and the resulting implications for sustainable development. This highlights the urgency for businesses to adopt flexible strategies that also support overarching sustainability objectives. The objective of the study is to analyze the impact of the pandemic on individual consumption and to understand the key psychological factors influencing consumer behavior. The main contribution of this work is the identification and ranking of pandemic influences using the AHP model, as well as understanding the implications of these behavioral changes for future planning.