56% Indians preferred in-store shopping this festive season: Report

The festival shopping season has been one carnival, both for online and offline shoppers and interestingly the Ipsos IndiaBus Shopping Fiesta Survey shows that the Amazon Great Indian Festival was the most awaited shopping event for e-commerce purchases for at least 44% of the urban Indians polled, while the Flipkart Big Billion Days was close on the heels (42%). Some of the other online shopping platforms with consumer interest included, Meesho’s Maha Indian Shopping League (34%), Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival (28%), Snapdeal’s Unbox Diwali Sale (20%), Nykaa’s Grand Festive Sale (10%) and Ajio’s Navratri Sale (5%). 

Interestingly, while the online shopping festivals were seen to be popular across urban Indians, at the same time they were predominantly defined by personal preferences. For instance, for SEC A, the top three choices emerging for the most awaited online shopping events were Flipkart’s Big Billion Days (64%), Amazon’s Great Indian Festival (59%) and Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival (41%). The self-employed were most chuffed about the Flipkart online shopping event (56%), followed by Myntra (55%) and Amazon (50%) online shopping fests. For the high education cohort, the Flipkart Big Billion Days was the top choice (60%), followed by Amazon’s Great Indian Festival (56%) and Meesho’s Maha Indian Shopping League (38%). For the low education cohort, Amazon’s Great Indian Festival was the top choice among online shopping events (36%), followed by Meesho (31%) and Flipkart’s (30%) shopping events. 

Preferences by zones for the online shopping events were an eye opener, the east zone chose the Flipkart and Amazon online shopping events most, tied at 32%, for the west zone, the top choice was the Amazon’s Great Indian Festival (59%), for the north zone, Meesho’s Maha Indian Shopping League had the highest consumer interest at 36%, Amazon and Flipkart were tied at the 2nd spot (31%), while for the south zone, their top preference of the online shopping event was the Amazon’s Great Indian Festival (57%), Flipkart (49%) and Myntra (37%) shopping events. Students claimed to be most excited about the Amazon’s Great Indian Festival (47%), metros’ fave was the Amazon online shopping event (61%), likewise for full time parents and housewives, Amazon (40%) it was. Tier 3’s most awaited event was of Meesho’s Maha Indian Shopping League (34%). Across age bands, Amazon’s Great Indian Festival was the top choice. 

The survey showed a heightened preference for in-store shopping (56%), while 32% preferred both, in-store + online shopping, while 12% preferred online shopping only.       

SEC A was seen to have a higher preference for online + in-store shopping mode (45%) and 23% online shopping only.       

Shoppers claimed to be in the shopping mood and mode one month before the festival (29%) and the festival frenzy was seen to pick up one week before the festival (42%). The trend was common across demographics and cohorts. 

Quality (80%), price (77%) discounts (66%) and brand reputation (46%) were the biggest hooks for the consumers, and leading to stickiness. 

Enthusiasm for festival shopping was rife among at least 2 in 3 urban Indians (65%). Interestingly, across all cohorts and demographics festival shopping emerged a common binding thread, though it was at a higher level of excitement among SEC A (76%), self-employed (76%), tier 1 (76%), metros (75%), west zone (74%) etc. And somewhat subdued among tier 3 (48%) and east zone (48%). 

 “Online marketplaces have their own charm in appealing to consumers’ sensibilities. And when they come layered with festive offers, glitz and deals with cost savings, consumers grab the offers. Also it is the auspicious time to buy, upgrade and invest in big ticket items around Navratri, Dhanteras and Diwali. E-marketplaces provide convenience of anywhere, anytime browsing, making it attractive for consumers. Our survey shows that all these online shopping fests were a big draw and had their own loyal consumers across demographics making them attractive annual events. We also saw a lot of convergence between online and in-store shopping behavior, emphasizing on the importance omnichannel shopping being the defining reality among enthused shoppers,” stated Parijat Chakraborty, Group Service Line Leader, Public Affairs, Corporate Reputation, CSR and ESG, Ipsos India.