The Impact of the Pandemic Covid-19 on the Digitalization of Trade in

Developing Countries

GERTI DAJÇI1, MATEUS HABILI2

Albanian University,

Street Blvd Zogu I 1001, Tirana,

ALBANIA

Abstract: - E-commerce is a new form of commerce where the consumer buys products and services from the

comfort of where he is. The Covid-19 pandemic forces consumers to buy products online due to the inability to go

out. Consumers have more used E-commerce in developed countries than in developing countries; several factors

cause this. In developing countries, the COVID-19 pandemic brought the digitalization of trade by encouraging the

number of online purchases. In developed countries, it also brought digitization because it encouraged the purchase

of products that were not considered before to be bought online or that have yet to be bought online. The purpose

of the study is to highlight the role and impact that the pandemic had on the digitization of trade in developing

countries and, more specifically, in Albania. The primary data of the study are from a sample of 610 respondents.

Some of the study's conclusions are the frequency of online product purchases affects the consumer's satisfaction

with online purchases, the repurchase of online products after the pandemic shows the level of satisfaction that the

E-commerce is the conduct of sales in digital form

through the Internet. E-commerce is an indicator that

increases the possibility of business development.

Also, E-commerce affects the economic growth of a

country, [1], [2]. In 2018-2019, the most developed

economies in the world had an impact of e-commerce

with 11% of and 4% of GDP for the whole world, [3].

E-commerce is selling through telecommunications,

[5]. E-commerce is the exchange of values by

applying information and communication technology,

[6], but it also involves doing business from the

Internet or digitizing products and services through

the Internet, [7]. E-commerce has created relationships

between consumers, businesses, and governments, [8],

[9]. The most frequent monetary transactions are

between B2B, where the most frequent are

communication, electronic procurement, and

electronic commerce, such as (C2C), where

consumers sell from each other through online

platforms.

E-commerce has made transactions more comfortable

[12], [13]. The Internet has had the effect of

increasing accessibility and creating relationships

between buyers and sellers. The Internet has an impact

on the economic growth of a developing country. E-

commerce allows businesses to expand quickly and

with little operational cost, [14]. E-commerce

increases productivity and can reduce costs, [15]. E-

commerce is a development that has changed how

businesses are done worldwide, [16]. E-commerce

combines sales between individuals, companies, and

percent), Georgia (87.2 percent), Republic of Moldova

(90 percent), North Macedonia (76.9 percent), the

decline occurred compared to a year ago where the

average decline was recorded for Albania with 51.6%,

for Georgia, 47.1%, for the Republic of Moldova with

57.1% percent and 43.0% for North Macedonia, [16].

Table 1. E-readiness in the Transition Economies of

the UNECE source: UNECE, based on UNCTAD

B2C Index 2019 and UNCTAD B2C Index 2020

companies was 36.6% in Georgia, 39.5% in the

Republic of Moldova, 24.3% in North Macedonia, and

18.1% in Albania, [18].

2.3 Factors Affecting the Digitalization of

Technology has impacted society as a whole on a

global level but has increased commerce's speed,

security, and efficiency. E-commerce has developed

transformation of doing business, [21]. Through E-

commerce, services such as various payments,

financial services, sales, and purchase of various

products, etc., are performed. Despite this

transformation, the sale of products will combine M-

E-commerce and E-commerce. However, the

application of M-commerce also needs help because it

combines three elements: money, technology, and

consumers, [22].

Fig. 1: Implementation of Paperless Trade-Related

Measures in the UNECE Region, 2021 UNECE

Regional Report on Digital and Sustainable Trade

Facilitation, 2021

increase in the number of smartphones has led to the

growth of M-commerce. E-commerce is predicted to

have an upward trend based on two strong points:

it increases (M-commerce). However, the so-called

"Social Commerce," where e-commerce is integrated

with social media, has also made consumers buy

products from social media. It should be emphasized

with Ewallet-5%. In Albania, it is estimated that there

will be about 1.4 million users on social media by

2020, and the most significant part uses smartphones

to log into social media, [26]. The most popular social

and analysis, that serve the study's purpose. Based on

the type of descriptive study and quantitative approach

in the analysis, reliability analysis was applied to

measure the stability of the questionnaire; with

Cronbach's Alpha test, multiple regression was

applied to measure the influence the variables have on

each other.

Based on the Table 1 the questionnaire is reliable

Table 2. KMO Test

suitability of the variables taken in the study and is

based on the KMO coefficient of 0.7 and the sig value

that is less than 5%. The variables taken in the study

are suitable for analysis based on multiple regression.

Table 3. Total Variance

regression analysis, it was found that the independent

Based on Table 6, the value is less than 5%, which

shows that hypothesis 1 is accepted and that the

factors that should have been taken into the study have

much influence on the satisfaction the consumer gets

from online shopping.

Hypothesis 2: The frequency of online shopping has

an impact on the satisfaction of online shopping.

Based on Table 6, the sig value is less than 5%, which

shows that hypothesis 2 is accepted and that the

frequency of online purchases greatly influences the

online shopping.

Hypothesis 4: The purchase of unthinkable products

has an impact on the satisfaction of the purchase.

Based on Table 6, the value of sig is less than 5%,

which shows that hypothesis 4 is accepted and that

buying products online impacts the satisfaction that

the consumer gets from online shopping.

Hypothesis 5: The frequency of online shopping

harms the satisfaction that consumers get from online

shopping.

that if all variables are zero with 1% of the frequency

of online purchases, consumer satisfaction from online

purchases will decrease by 22.8%, so an increase in

the number of online purchases will increase

consumer satisfaction from online purchases by 31%,

i.e., an increase in the number of unthinkable products

purchased online will increase consumer satisfaction

with online shopping, which shows that buying a

specific category of products, especially those that a

consumer did not think he could get online, gave him

a certain level of satisfaction. The pandemic has

forced consumers to buy products they did not think

they could buy online, influencing the transfer of

online purchases for a specific category of products. It

guides studies in the E-Commerce field to analyze

on customer satisfaction, the more the frequency of

purchases increases, the more the risk that the

customer will be dissatisfied with the quality of the

service because the very characteristic of the service is

that it cannot be provided equally to all customers, it

should be noted that the service combines

interpersonal communication because, in the case of

machines, the service is standard. Customer

dissatisfaction brings a negative word of mouth for

online shopping, an element that would demotivate

the description of the consumer in developing

countries taking into consider the macro and micro

economic factors of the country where the study takes

place.

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• Ph.D. Gerti Dajçi conceptualized the article,