Global Journal of Management and Business Research, E: Marketing, Volume 22 Issue 2

• To identify whether there is a positive impact between customer trust and customer loyalty during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. • To identify whether there is a positive impact between technology adoption and customer loyalty during the COVID-19 pandemic. • To identify whether there is a positive impact between age; as the moderator and customer loyalty during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. f) Scope of the Study The goal of this exploratory study is to look at how consumer loyalty in online groceries during the COVID-19 pandemic depended on other factors such as customer satisfaction, customer confidence, product quality, technology adoption, and age; as a moderator. One; of the things we considered a lot was how the Sri Lankan consumer faced this catastrophic situation, how they went about their daily lives, and how they changed their loyalty to COVID-19 in fulfilling their customer needs. According; to the readings and findings of various authors who have been able to find research on consumer changes in online groceries due to the situation in the research COVID-19 pandemic, which has many facts in finding data from different sources. But; they could to focus on the information about consumer changes in online groceries of product quality, and technology adoption was limited. Much; of the focus has been on customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. Therefore; this research finds out how consumer loyalty depends on customer satisfaction, customer trust, customer confidence, purchasing intention, product quality, and technology adoption that affect online groceries. Finding; information through research is essential for the government and the business community on how to break free from the traditional marketing system and sell and buy products online with customer loyalty. II. L iterature R eview a) COVID-19 Influence on Online Grocery Shopping Over the age; of 55, the most significant change to online grocery buying occurred, nearly tripling the average online shopping. However; the number of individuals between the ages of 35 and 44 has increased dramatically, with 32 percent currently operating at least one online store; every week (Kemp, 2021). Survey; done in the United Kingdom shows that online purchasing was famous even before the crisis, but the disease spread quickly (Shveda, 2022). The; epidemic situation was a trigger of increased awareness for these solutions. According; to Statista Research Department data in 2021, Walmart Grocery app holds the top spot among shopping applications worldwide. This; shows that with the COVID-19 situation, most people had no choice but to shop online. In; the US, 75 percent of customers converted their regular buying pattern to shopping online due to COVID-19 (Redman, 2021). When; shopping for groceries online in the US, 45 percent of customers prefer to have their orders delivered to their homes. About; 9 percent of internet- based sellers use store; to fulfill customer orders. However; 20 percent of respondents are users of online subscription services, which often offer users unlimited free pickups various delivery based on transaction amount and frequency, among many other benefits. When; it comes to grocery shopping, 40 percent of people say they utilize these programs, online membership is particularly popular among young people, which we identify as Generation Z and Millennials. Generation; X was the most frequent consumers of store pickups, which are 20 percent percentage (Redman, 2021). b) Online Grocery Shopping in Sri Lanka According to the from the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, in 2017 overall quantity of mobile broadband services has quadrupled every year since its launch in 2009, averaging a roughly 96.5 percent increase over the last six years. By; the end of 2015, every 100 persons in Sri Lanka owned 113 smartphones and 13 fixed lines. These; statistics are related to the situation before COVID-19 broke in. Online; grocery shopping has grown steadily in Sri Lanka recently, which is actually quite significant. Over; 90 percent of people in Sri Lanka use their laptops and smartphones to access the internet; (Haq, 2020). With; the help of Daraz's; selling tools, merchants may now respond to rising client demands and start their own businesses. Eighty-five percent of all online consumers in Sri Lanka claim to have used Daraz, (Sunday Observer, 2020). The Western province has the most significant online order share of 50 percent, followed by the Northwestern and central regions with 10 percent, 9 percent order shares, correspondingly. Colombo; and Gampaha have the highest district-level order share, with 31 percent earlier and 15 percent in the former. The; distribution in these areas reflects the country's; demographic density (Daily FT, 2022). c) Conceptual Framework The study's; dependent variable is customer loyalty, whereas the study's; independent variables are customer satisfaction, customer trust, customer confidence, product quality, and technology adoption. Furthermore; as a result of the questionnaire, age has a significant impact on the online shopping system and, age act as a moderator variable in the study. The; below Figure 3.1 conceptual framework provides a more detailed description of this relationship between independent variables, dependent variables, and moderator variables. Factors Influencing Customer Loyalty in Online Groceries after COVID-19 in Sri Lanka 41 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue II Version I Year 2022 ( )E © 2022 Global Journals