Multicultural Education Volume 7, Issue 10, 2021 _______________________________________________________________________________________ 379 University Student’s Behavior Towards Online Shopping during COVID- 19 Pandemic in Lahore, Pakistan Areeba Bukhari, Madieha Akram, Aamir Hayat Article Info Abstract Article History Received: May 11, 2021 The present research was conducted to study the behavioral change of university students regarding towards online shopping after the occurrence of COVID-19 pandemic. This research study also examined the increase of online shopping as a new method of shopping and emerging trend among university students. Quantitative research approach used as a method of inquiry.Simple random sampling was used to draw the sample from the required population. The drawn sample size was 398 university students that were currently studying in universities. An adopted well-structured questionnaire was used to collect the required information from university students. Quantitative analysis was done through SPSS version 26. Pearson’s Correlation and Linear regression analysis used to test the hypothesis. A number of associations were found between COVID-19 and university students online shopping behavior. It has been revealed by research study that COVID-19 caused to increase online shopping and transform student’s behavior regarding online shopping. According to results, most of students gave preference to online shopping especially in lockdowns and restrict circumstances. Students adopted online shopping due to social distancing, health risk conditions, and to stay at home for safety purposes. Accepted: October 13, 2021 Keywords : COVID-19, Online Shopping, University Student’s Behavior, Social Distancing, Lockdown, Behavioral Change. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5567530 Introduction Internet has played an important role as a tool to connect with the world digitally. It facilitates people to use different digital platforms for work, knowledge, business and entertainment like email, social media, and many other trade sectors to buy and sell online. Online shopping industry risen and becoming popular worldwide (Memon et al., 2021). The Covid-19 outbreak gave a sudden rise and increase potential to online shopping (Pham, et al., 2020). The change in shopping behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic was firstly investigated in 2020 (Hashem, 2020). Online shopping is internet-based shopping of goods and products using digital platforms. Online platforms allow students as consumers to buy more through online stores to increase purchases day by day (Mathew, 2015). Everyday life essentials like grocery shopping are a necessity of social life and people spent more on common groceries during the Covid-19 pandemic. The dynamic relationship of Covid-19 pandemic to the behavior of online shoppers has become an important topic of research (Grashuis, Skevas and Segovia, 2020). All changes in patterns of social life not occurred only because Government applied restrictions, institutions adopt flexibility in working environment, but personal awareness also play a vital role to control the spread of virus by maintaining social distance for others safety and self-protection (Bucsky, 2020). Interaction with people in general gatherings and specifically in public places like parks, shopping malls and shops, and restaurants can increase health risk (Honey-Roses et al., 2020). The overall structure of social life has changed due to the impacts of lockdown strategies and social distancing (Malik et al., 2020; Rehman et al., 2020). Online shopping platforms allow people to shop through internet and provide facility to deliver ordered product to their home or nearby place as curbside pickup. These online shops also serve a public health interest by digital contact between people and shops that is helpful to protect and slow the transmission of Covid-19 virus in society (Chang and Meyerhoefer, 2020). The number of online shoppers increasing as people shifting from traditional shopping to online shopping not only in developed countries but also developing countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Pakistan. In Pakistan, online shopping industry introduced in 2000 but its progress was very poor because just 3 percent people follow and experience online shopping (Bhatti, 2018; Bhatti, Saad, and Salimon, 2019). Now in COVID-19 pandemic challenging situation, online shopping trend in Pakistan is increasing by 10 percent on daily bases record and 15 percent rise in internet users, and the demand of products on online stores increasing 30 percent to 40 percent. Many applications like food panda launched in different cities to provide easy and quick access to grocery and food. Online shopping trends in Pakistan is moving upward day by