Causal Factors Affecting Small Convenience Store and their Marketing Strategies for Coping with the Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Era: A Sequential Exploratory Study in Noveleta, Cavite

This sequential exploratory research entitled Causal Factors Affecting Small Convenience Store and its Marketing Strategies for Coping with the Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Era: A Sequential Exploratory Study in Noveleta, Cavite and aims to explore factors that affect small convenience stores during the pandemic in the town of Noveleta, Cavite, and I intend to investigate the alternative marketing strategies implemented by business owners. It focuses on qualitative findings through interviews involving ten (10) respondents, supported by quantitative results involving fifty (50) respondents via surveys. Transcribing and encoding methods are used in qualitative data analysis, while for quantitative data analysis, descriptive statistics are conducted.

Findings show that ten factors can affect a small convenience store business (Community lockdown, Quarantine pass, lack of money, Relief goods from the Government, Lack/limited supply, Police checkpoints, Social distancing, Curfew, Inflation of goods, Unsold products). Ten alternative marketing strategies help sari-sari store owners during the time of pandemic (Early opening, Making the Price Affordable, Continuing business, Prioritizing the Needs of Customers, Looking for More Reliable Suppliers, Offering Free Delivery, Promoting through Social Media, Lending Goods, Giving Freebies, Adding Essential Products).

In addition, the effective marketing strategy that helped many small convenience stores during the pandemic was adding essential products (M= 4.92), followed by early opening (M= 4.90). The researchers crafted a project titled 'Project ESOCOSS.' The Project Enhancement Seminar On Creating Online Selling Sites (ESOCOSS) aims to hold a seminar where the participants can learn about gadgets and business matters.