Factors Influencing the Increase in Online Purchases by Rural Women after the COVID-19 in Kazakhstan

Abstract

In rural areas of Kazakhstan, there is a steady decline in the population due first to natural decline, migration outflow associated with a low quality of life, and access to resources, including the Internet. Rural women have similar spiritual values, social experience and lifestyles as urban women. This paper discusses an essential part of the problems associated with limited access to resources, namely digital resources and the Internet. The study was conducted based on structural and functional approaches using a wide range of analysis and evaluation methods. To answer the research questions, female respondents from all regions of Kazakhstan were interviewed. As a result, it got answers from 265 women with different levels of wealth and education. The survey was conducted between September 10 and October 10, 2022, as part of the research on the grant project on rural women's access to resources. Linear regression with categorical predictors will determine the main factors' influence on online shoppers' behaviour. In this paper, the influence of various factors of the respondents of women in Kazakhstan on the change in the number of purchases after the COVID-19 pandemic was investigated. The work used data from a sociological survey conducted on the territory of Kazakhstan among women. The results show that factors such as Internet literacy, family status, working from home, the amount of time to buy online and using recommendations in social networks significantly impact online purchases.