The Boosting Effect of Online Retailing on Household Consumption during Covid-19

ABSTRACT

The outbreak of Covid-19 has posed severe negative impact on household consumption. This paper investigates the boosting effect of online retailing on household consumption during the epidemic period. Based on the data of Anhui Province in China, this paper show that during the epidemic period, every 1% increase in the growth rate of online retail sales could increase the proportion of total retail sales of consumer goods above the quota in GDP by 4.27%. Therefore, we provide reliable empirical evidence of promoting consumer consumption through the development of online retail under the normalization of the epidemic situation. © 2021 ACM.