The Impact of Sales Promotions on Consumer Buying Behaviour: A Comparative Analysis from the Pandemic to the Post-Pandemic Period

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic represented a significant turning point in consumer behaviour, altering purchasing priorities, shopping habits, and responses to marketing activities. As businesses relied on sales promotions to stimulate demand during uncertainty, understanding how promotions influence buying behaviour became crucial. While sales promotions are widely studied, limited research has examined how their effectiveness evolved from the pandemic to the post-pandemic period, or how consumer responses differ across national contexts. This dissertation addresses these gaps by investigating the impact of sales promotions on consumer buying behaviour through a comparative analysis of consumers in Azerbaijan and Poland.

The study establishes theoretical foundations of sales promotions and consumer decision-making, reviewing how the pandemic reshaped shopping patterns. Identifying research gaps concerning promotional attractiveness, exposure, frequency, impulse purchasing, and cross-cultural differences, the study develops a conceptual framework and hypotheses.

Adopting a mixed-methods design, the research integrates quantitative and qualitative approaches to examine relationships between promotions and buying behaviour, changes across time periods, and differences between Azerbaijani and Polish consumers. The empirical chapters analyze perceived promotional attractiveness, buying behaviour, exposure, frequency, impulse purchasing, and preferred deal types across product categories and cultural contexts.

The discussion integrates the findings and outlines theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions to consumer behaviour and marketing literature. Finally, the study acknowledges limitations such as its two-country focus and reliance on self-reported data, proposing directions for future research in dynamic markets.