Navigating the Digital Shift: How Indian LOOROs Coped Amid COVID-19

Local Owner-Operated Retail Outlets (LOOROs) in India faced unprecedented disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, with digital transformation emerging as both a challenge and an opportunity. The growing dominance of larger online and offline competitors, who swiftly adopted digital payments, posed a threat to traditional business models of these small neighborhood retailers. This study employs the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework to examine the antecedents shaping LOORO owners’ attitudes toward digital payment practices and how these attitudes influence their intention and actual adoption. A survey of 175 LOOROs in Navi Mumbai was analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings revealed that resource availability and customer care significantly influenced adoption, whereas competitor and customer pressure had little effect. Overall, LOORO owners demonstrated a positive outlook toward integrating digital payment systems, indicating their adaptive capacity to navigate the digital shift accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.