While it dramatically changed everyone's lives, the epidemic postponed or completely canceled some of the business' plans, while others  it drew nearer in time by at least 1-2 years. Consumers in Bulgaria, those who got stuck in the time around the beginning of the transition, abruptly recalled what it was like to wait in line for food, with the difference that now food is not in short supply. Albeit in new conditions, our ingenuity has been again “switched on” - how to get a hard-to-find medicine or a much touted dietary supplement or be able to get into the online delivery store schedule.

 Food chains, conservative until recently, found a way to deliver home, though not their full product range. Closed restaurants seek partial salvation in cooking for home and office delivery, and buying a vacation has become something practically unthinkable. It was replaced by attempts to get back your deposit while the tour operator wonders in turn how to get his advance payment for hotel and air tickets to give your money back.

 It all started with a panicky purchase of durable goods, and no assurances that none of them would be sold out helped. The fear of the virus and the imposed distancing in front of food stores made more people opt for online delivery services, which at the time were not so many and were overloaded.

 On social media, there have been lively discussions about how to better arrange home delivery. Others headed to neighborhood stores. How many exactly - no one can say.

The official data about what happened is more than scarce, corporate - often wrapped in not quite accurate statistics, as far as it is disclosed at all.

 It shows that people were expected to buy goods more willingly online, that men's suits had practically stopped selling, but lucrative clothing deals fueled a desire to look good even at an online business meeting. Coronavirus has also made businesses move sales to the drugstore, while the best-selling item remains the eye mascara.

 If we look at the National Statistical Institute data, online shopping has shrunk in the current year compared to the previous year, but this probably reflects the shrinking consumption of certain categories of goods that were selling in this way in normal times.

 The share of people who have shopped online for private purposes in the last three months is 15.6% (at 21.7% for 2019), with 15.4% buying goods and 6.7% - digital products and services. The most active are people with higher education with a relative share of 31.7%, as well as young people in the age groups 16 - 24 years (25.5%) Women shop online more than men - 16.2% and 15%, respectively.

 Of those shopping online in the past three months, 59.7% buy goods and services between one and two times, and 31.9% make three to five purchases. The total worth of online purchases of 31.3% of consumers is between BGN 100 and BGN 199, 29.9% shop online for less than BGN 100, and at 25.4% the worth is between BGN 200 and BGN 599.

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