It looks like some of it is an income increase (for some) who got refunds on things that got cancelled. Excerpts:
"The panic buying, the over-buying, the emotional buying aren't unique to this extraordinary world-shaking event, but it's the kind of world-shaking event that sent the world home with plenty of anxiety and few shopping options other than the online kind.
In the U.S., retail sales tumbled by a record 16.4% from March to April as business shutdowns caused by the coronavirus kept shoppers away, threatened stores and weighed down a tanking economy. The Commerce Department reported that a long-standing migration toward online purchases accelerated, posting an 8.4% monthly gain.
Measured year over year, online sales surged 21.6%.
“It's panic on lots of levels,” said Wendy Liebmann, CEO of WSL Strategic Retail, a global consulting firm specializing in retail strategy and shopper insights. “All of the traditional buying patterns are tossed up in the air.”
She called it “shopping chaos” with no anchors. And the chaos has come with some unique calculus.
One couple got to skip their last preschool payment due to lockdown and purchased the couch of their dreams."
"That “instant” feeling is key to much of the coronavirus shopping, said Jeff Galak, associate professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.
“Shopping as therapy has been shown to reduce negative moods and boost overall happiness," he said. “The big downside, however, is that such relief is very short-lived. That good feeling very quickly dissipates.”
Galak said some research points to “shopping while bored” as a variation with less emotional payout.
“Browsing for things that one doesn’t need fills the time and then clicking `buy now' just naturally follows,” he said. “Consumers may find themselves on page 20 of a search result for a new pair of shoes, a place that when engaged and not bored, they would never reach.”"
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