Research background: The COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the world in the first quarter of 2020, has impacted almost every area of people's lives. Many states have introduced varying degrees of measures to prevent its spread. Most of these measures were, or still are, aimed at reducing or completely stopping the operation of shops and services, or in some cases, also the large manufacturing companies. However, as many companies have failed to cope with these restrictions, unemployment has risen in almost all EU countries. A similar situation was also observed in Slovakia, where the mentioned measures also had a significant impact on unemployment. Purpose of the article: In this study, we deal with the quantification of the impact of a pandemic, or more precisely, anti-pandemic measures, on the development of the registered unemployment rate in Slovakia. Methods: This quantification is based on the counterfactual method of before-after comparison, which is one of the most widely used methods in the field of impact assessments and brings very accurate results, based on real data. In the analysis, we use officially published data on the unemployment rate in Slovakia during the years 2013?2020 on a monthly basis. Such a long time series, using statistical methods of its decomposition and modelling of its trend, will allow predicting the development of the unemployment rate in Slovakia, assuming a counterfactual situation of no pandemic, and compare this development with the actual situation that occurred during 2020. Findings & Value added: The study results indicate an increase in the unemployment rate in Slovakia during 2020 by 2?3% compared to the trend of its development, which would have occurred without a pandemic. Given the counterfactual method used, this difference can be described as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the study can be used in practice in the design and implementation of measures introduced to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on unemployment and, in the long-term perspective, also to eliminate these effects as much as possible. It can also be used as a theoretical tool in conducting impact assessments, which have so far been carried out very rarely in Slovakia.

Understanding consumer behavior and clearly predicting its subsequent direction is a complex process. We can often see significant differences between how a consumer behaves in a given market and what his attitudes, needs, or expectations are. It is very important to place much more emphasis on the area of consumer behavior than on the individual, to meet his needs and wishes as much as possible. In the following article, we conducted a survey in the form of a questionnaire on an online platform with a sample of 500 respondents from the Slovak Republic. The foundation of our study was to examine whether the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still a topical issue and it is a significant impact on daily life, has changed the shopping behavior in the clothing industry with which they consciously purchase. We were also interested in the dependence between income and frequency of purchase. The methods used in the paper were based on a theoretical elaboration of the issue of consumer behavior and the clothing industry as the second-largest polluter of the environment after the oil industry, subsequent analysis and synthesis. Another statistical method that we used in the paper was the analysis of qualitative data from the questionnaire survey through the creation of contingency tables and determining the dependence, respectively, independence between individual variables. We consider this article to be a good basis for further research.

The prognosis and determination of consumer behavior is not an easy process. As part of the development of consumer behavior as the last member of the B2C market in the distribution channel, one can observe the gradual decline of brick-and-mortar stores and the rise of online shopping for several decades, especially the enormous growth of online shopping over the last two years caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it should be noted that many retailers offer their products simultaneously in brick-and-mortar stores and also through the e-shop. The main purpose of the article is to determine the dependence of spent funds on the basis of individual criteria. The primary data were obtained by conducting a questionnaire survey, in which we determined the amount of spent funds for traditional and online retail shopping. Data were analyzed using the Shapiro-Wilk normality test, followed by an analysis of the dependencies of the variables using the Kruskal-Wallis’s test and one-way ANOVA. The results show that, apart from gender, the other factors examined do not affect the amount of spent money. Due to the absence of published academic literature and empirical findings concerning the behavior of retail trade format selection in the Slovak market, this study may serve as a starting point for future studies in this area of interest. The survey is also relevant for retailers in terms of format development and reorientation of marketing strategies.

Research background: Globalization encourages increased involvement of retailers, and the market currently provides these entities with a new range of purchasing functions. The new economy is based primarily on information and knowledge, so the key to success is the ability to constantly improve and respond to changing market conditions and increasing customer requirements. The Internet thus becomes an integral part of our lives. It is a tool that makes our lives better. The expansion of the global information network Internet has created space for a new kind of business. It brings benefits to all e-commerce entities. For this reason, its popularity is growing exponentially. The negative experience caused by financial fraud, misuse of sensitive data, the unreliability of business partners, and the like is also growing.Purpose of the article: The basic purpose of the article is the fact that the development of e-commerce is one of the important conditions for maintaining and increasing the competitiveness of the Slovak economy and its ability to participate in the international division of labor with the economically developed countries.Methods: The basic pillar of the article was to analyze the current development of e-commerce in the Slovak Republic, which is affected by the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19, make a comparison with EU countries, and evaluate the perception of e-commerce by Slovak consumers based on a questionnaire survey. Findings & Value added: Finally, we interpret the answers of the respondents, which were obtained by the questionnaire method.

We can definitely state that consumer behavior is influenced by many factors. Age is one of the most significant and important demographic indicators, which are reflected in changes in consumer behavior, primarily in the growth and transformation of the needs of individualists. The primary foundation and purpose of the paper is to determine the influence and dependence of individual generational cohorts, respectively age, on the amount of money spent in the purchasing process, which will be enriched by a comparative analysis of the amount of money spent in retail and in the online space. Among the methods that we used in the article, we primarily include the graph analysis method supplemented by correlation analysis and linear regression. Primary data were obtained from a questionnaire survey of Slovak retail consumers. The last method used was the method of comparing results. We consider the model as a whole to be statistically significant in the case of Gen X, who makes purchases online, and the younger Gen Z in both variants of purchases (physical and online). The contribution is a suitable basis for further research.