Digitalization of the food field in the conditions of the „COVID-19” pandemic

Abstract

The appearance of the coronavirus at the end of 2019 disturbed the peace of the entire planet. The rapid increase in the number of infected people has led to restrictions by governments. It started with wearing masks in public places, followed by reducing the number of consumers in the premises, and finally reaching the lock downs. All economic fields have suffered, especially the food industry. In order to survive in the economic market, entrepreneurs were looking for solutions, so this crisis has contributed to the growing emphasis on developing a business strategy through the intensive exploitation of technology. As a result, the COVID-19 pandemic imposed one of the largest increases in investment in technology in history. During this research, the terms digitization, the process of adapting businesses to new conditions and consumer behavior in pandemic circumstances were studied. In order to detect the influence of coronavirus on consumers' purchasing decisions, a survey was conducted with the participation of 60 people. Following this research, it was found that most respondents place orders online with the help of devices quite often, more since the beginning of the pandemic the volume of shopping has increased and diversified. Of course, it could not be without difficulties, but they still have confidence in ordering online, this has become a habit, with the help of this action they gain time and money. As we can see, the pandemic played an important role in digitizing the food industry. CZU: 664:004.738.5. JEL: L20, L22, L25, L93. DOI: https://doi.org/10.53486/9789975359047.07