It is important to note here that Pak’nSave does not deliver directly to the customer (as for example Countdown does). Its online shopping is called Click and Collect, i.e. making the order online and then coming to a nearby store to pick up the goods (https://www.paknsave.co.nz/shop/online-shopping). Therefore, it does not make as much sense to compare it with another supermarket chain that has been involved in online shopping for a long time and offers home delivery. Pak’nSave also has a relatively smaller number of branches than its competitors. Pak’nSave is best known for offering more convenient prices to the consumer. Despite its limited online shopping services, Pak’nSave has experienced a surge in interest in the 2020 panic buying environment, as evidenced by the many different online entries that have been made into the web search engines. The top search terms between 1 March 2020 and 23 April 2020 were ‘pak n save online shopping,’ ‘pak n save,’ and ‘paknsave online shopping.’

Conclusions

Regarding the original research question: “How to achieve a better social media listening and monitoring outcome for companies by using a social listening tool?”, several lessons have become evident. When working with a long-term trend or crisis, social media data needs to be scanned especially after major public announcements. The analysis of the online trends during 2020 is still ongoing and there are still many avenues to be explored and questions to be discussed.
This case study has other limitations, e.g. data retrieved from Twitter and YouTube tends to lack geographical information. Future research needs to include the more specific regional analysis by finding or creating a social listening tool with functionalities that can verify the geographical aspects from the social media data.
In 2020, it is seen that panic shopping developed rather gradually. Pak’nSave has not necessarily responded by expanding its online shopping, but rather has reacted through price competition and price reductions (Dickinson, 2020). In the future, social media analysts should look closer, not only at already known concepts such as brand recognition, but also at how price competition plays out in social media posts and how effectively news such as promotions and sales may spread.

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