The Role of Online Shopping and Fulfillment in the Hong Kong SARS Crisis

The SARS crisis in Hong Kong during early 2003 dramatically changed consumer behavior. These changes contributed to the high indirect and secondary costs that characterized this crisis. In this paper we investigate the role online shopping played during the SARS crisis and how future growth in online shopping might influence consumer behavior in future crises. Using data from Hong Kong´s largest online supermarket we find demand for online shopping grew during SARS in an apparent response to the growing fear of infection. Online shopping provided consumers with an alternate source for goods normally purchased in traditional supermarkets as well as a means to distribute products for infection prevention. We build on these observations to suggest that online shopping empowers individuals during a prolonged crisis and may change how policy makers need to approach centralized coordination during a crisis such as SARS.