The Impact of COVID-19 on E-Commerce Business Case Study of the 4 largest E-Commerce Companies in the World

Abstract

           The purpose of this study was to investigate the COVID- 19 spreading impact on E-Commerce business. Case study of four largest E-Commerce companies in the world was explored, and this is a descriptive research with a case study examples. Four largest E-Commerce global companies were selected according to their size, turnover, and the company’s nationality decided by a large number of people infected by coronavirus. The result found that four companies have positive daily returns calculated by the average daily profit. The sum of multiple linear regression model with regression coefficient specified the most important independent variables and the impact of companies’ daily returns. The first independent variable is the number of fatalities due to the coronavirus infection. This is the first impact on E-commerce companies’ profits. The second independent variable is the whole number of COVID-19 infectious people which is the second impact. For Walmart, and Argos, the finding showed that the most influence on E-Commerce business was the number of fatalities due to virus infection. Walmart and Argos are two companies belonging to US and UK over which the virus is maximum spread during research study. For JD.com and Rakuten, these are two companies belonging to China and Japan of which people are maximum affected by coronavirus. There is maximum influence in JD.com and Rakuten companies’ daily returns. The finding showed that the number of deaths from Covid-19 and infected people results in the expansion of E-Commerce in the positive way. As a result, the business keeps flourishing. Therefore, it is recommended that not only using the result as a guideline for business adaptation in this crisis but helping make a contribution to entrepreneurs desiring to run a business in Thailand as well.