Protective measures against COVID-19 and the business strategies of the retail enterprises: Differences in gender, age, education, and income among shoppers

The present study sought to develop a conceptual framework to explain the influence of protective measures adopted by the retail enterprises against the COVID-19 virus on customers’ attitudes toward these measures, and the safety during the shopping experience, as well as the satisfaction with these types of protective measures and behavioral intentions. A structural equation modeling and metric invariance test were used as the data analysis technique. Our results revealed that the protective measures against the COVID-19 virus significantly and positively influenced customer safety during shopping, the attitudes and satisfaction, which contribute to an increase of their behavioral intentions as a result. The mediating role of attitudes and safety was also uncovered. In addition, our findings from the metric invariance test indicated that gender, age, education, and income significantly moderated the relationships among the studied constructs. Our results can help retail practitioners and researchers develop a strategy to effectively implement protective measures against COVID-19 in the retail enterprises.