A New Digital India - 5 Quirky Trends That Might Interest You As A Marketer

It’s happening now. We are right at the onset of a movement, a digital movement started by "pages", validated by "likes", tweaked and "tweeted" by thousands, mobilized by millions.

The digital movement has encapsulated India and how! It’s changing the way Indians behave, communicate and most importantly the way they consume.

We at Triature put in some team effort and discovered the 5 most recent and interesting trends of Indian ‘digital’ consumers:

If you have been there, SHARE it.

It’s no hidden fact that Indians love to holiday, with majority of them wanting to take trips with friends or family. But now one more companion has become inseparable to Indians while they are holidaying- their mobile phones. A study conducted by TripBarometer Mobile and Social survey revealed that 96% of holidaying Indians used their mobile phones on their vacations, with maximum usage of social media to boast about their vacation.

‘It wouldn’t be a holiday if our friends didn’t know about it,’ say 23% of Indians according to the findings which were a part of a global survey. 14% say that they use social media to make their friends jealous. 37%, which is more than one third of the Indians, admitted to showing off and bragging about their trips and holidays on social media.

Majority of  the Indians used their mobile devices to share their pictures of the trip, update statuses of where they were and tweet how they were discovering things on the trip, on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter etc. Apart from the domination of social media usage, the findings state that other key constituents for travellers to use their phones while on the go were- 73% for calling and 62% for texting.

One in three Indian travelers were dependent on social media platforms for planning their last trip, with 72% of them using it to research in advance about the place they were going to by seeing pictures, 70% reading about reviews and recommendations, 59 % discovering places to go to and things to do and 58% searching for deals and discounts.

We are sharing more than the rest of the world

India is a country of people who love to eat. We love to spend time with family and friends. We also love taking care of people, ‘atithi devo bhava’ - a value taught to us since times immemorial. And now the India of  the 21st century loves to ‘SHARE’ too, even more than our global counterparts! A recent survey conducted with 18,150 respondents by Ispos stated that nine out of ten (88%) Indians shared content on social media sites as compared to 71% globally.

Pictures were amongst the most popular items shared on these social media sites with women appearing more likely to share the content than men.

The other range of content shared on social sites were ‘opinions’ (56%), 'links to articles' (37%), a 'status update of what/how I'm doing' (36%), 'news items' (34%), 'something I like or recommend, such as a product, service, movie, book, etc.' (32%), 'status update of what I'm feeling' (29%), 'video clips' (29%), 'links to other websites' (27%), 'reposts from other people's social media posts' (25%), 'plans for future activities, trips, plans' (17%) and 'other types of content' (15%).

The study suggests that Indian citizens under the age of 35 (92%), in particular, are most likely to share any type of content on social media sites,as compared to those aged between 35 to 49 (86%) and those between 50 to 64 (78%).

Digital driving, new fad of Indian drivers

The busy roads of India have even more busy drivers. Three in ten (29%) drivers are texting, emailing, or using social media while they are on the go. IPSOS conducted a survey among 14,160 respondents across the globe. Their survey revealed that the Indian average of people being digitally engaged on their phones while driving was higher than the global average which stood at 22%.

Research also revealed the importance of age in the mobile consumption of Indians while driving, with maximum (31%) under the age of 35 years saying ‘yes’ to using phones while at the wheel, while 21% aged 35-49 years  and 10% aged 50-64 years of age fell under this category.

Who needs a salesman? We definitely don’t.

Indian consumers are becoming smarter when it comes to shopping and this rise in the smartness quotient is directly proportional to the rise of Internet penetration in India. 7 out of 10 buyers in India had made up their mind about the exact model and brand of product they wanted to buy before entering the store.

They achieved this through online research. 40% of the respondents admitted that they took the help of the internet to read up on the various attributes of the technological products they wanted to buy such as prices of the products, followed by product photographs, specifications, videos, product reviews, location of stores and visits to product comparison sites.

This new trend will lead to a radical change in the way consumers and marketers communicate with each other. For over 57% respondents revealed that their decisions to buy a particular product changed after reading up about it on the Internet.

Technology and consumer electronic products such as laptops (54 per cent), mobile phones (39 per cent), digital cameras (38 per cent) and televisions (33 per cent) are amongst the topmost researched product categories. The intensity of research also increased for products going above the range of Rs 7000 for mobiles and Rs 30,000 for television sets and laptops.

We are cheap

Rise in credit & debit cards are 'spending signals' of India's transformation into a cashless economy.

For the Indian youth, discounts and credit/debit cards go hand in hand, with 47% of the Indian youth linking a discount with their credit card/debit card. Between 2007-08 and 2012-13, the number of cards issued (except credit cards) has risen. From a small base of around 150 million in March 2008, electronic cards are nudging the 400-million mark today. The growing popularity of online shopping is automatically pushing online purchases.

In fact, a third of all expenditure on Visa cards in India today come from e-commerce. A research conducted by Dr. Hannah Frederick shows that (40%) of the customers use Debit card as a mode of payment to do online shopping followed by (32%) who use credit cards.

The customers who are involved in online shopping mostly use debit card for their online transactions and spend Rs.1000 to Rs.5000 in a single online transaction. Ebay India’s Festive mobile Commerce Survey conducted with over 1000 ebay users in India in October 2013 revealed that (78%) shoppers prefer shopping for mobiles to get great deals on purchases and (60%) shopped on mobiles to save fuel.

Banks have also managed to get a share of the online shopping extravaganza. American Express has tied up with various online merchants like Home Shop 18, yebhi.com, Infibeam, ebay, Zovi and many more to offer great deals and discounts on products for card holders shopping online.

Cardholders can also avail 5% cash back on any transaction above INR 10,000 for an American Express Gift Card of upto Rs. 1000, which is a prepaid card accepted at all merchant partner outlets of American Express.

As you can see, these trends can only pave way for exciting times! What do you think about these trends? Share your opinion in the comments below.