91% consumers plan to shop during this festive season: survey

After a difficult year dealing with the pandemic, consumers in India are gearing up to celebrate the festival season, planning new purchases during upcoming shopping sales for Diwali, Dussehra and Christmas, said the findings of a survey conducted by adtech firm The Trade Desk and YouGov.

Titled 'Festive Season Pulse 2021', the survey, conducted online in August, mapped the sentiment of consumers through responses from over 1,000 people aged 18-45 years across the country. The results found that 91% of Indian consumers are planning a purchase during the upcoming festival season and six in 10 are interested in learning about new brands during festival season sales.

Nearly three in five Indians are excited about the upcoming festival season sales with nine in 10 planning to make a purchase during this time.

Apparel and accessories emerged as the top preferred purchase category across gender. While women are looking at buying groceries, health and personal care, consumer durables and make up and fragrances this festive season, men are eyeing consumer electronics, groceries, health and personal care and home appliances.

The survey also revealed that 82% of respondents shopped online at least once a month in the past six months, and nearly one in four made online purchases several times a week or more often.

According to the research, Indians tend to be ‘brand switchers,’ as more than half of Indians (53%) are neutral or indifferent to the brands that they purchase. In addition, six in 10 Indians are interested to learn about new brands during the festival season, with women more likely to be interested than men (68% versus 58%). This also indicates that women are more open to ads during the festive season sales and gives reasons for marketers to target women well in advance for festive sales as opposed to targeting men, who may have pre-decided needs for their shopping.

The report highlighted that festive season sales present an ideal time to capture the attention of both ‘brand switchers’ and ‘brand loyalists.’ With the plethora of choices consumers have today coupled with their excitement for such sales events, marketers can feed on their enthusiasm by offering ‘brand switchers’ deals where they see the most value for money.

In terms of promotions and festive season related advertising, consumers said that they were influenced the most by ads across open internet platforms with 34% citing over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platforms, music streaming services, websites and mobile apps as the most impactful when it comes to influencing their shopping behaviour. Social media promotions took the second spot with 33% respondents admitting that they get influenced by ads on these platforms.

Meanwhile, traditional offline channels (direct mail, traditional TV commercials, outdoor advertising and word of mouth) stood at 32%. The findings demonstrate that just as many consumers turn to the open internet as they do to social media to inform their purchase decisions. This comes as no surprise as people are spending majority of their time at home on the open internet, consuming content such as watching OTT, streaming music, and reading online content for entertainment.

Tejinder Gill, general manager of The Trade Desk in India, said, “An increasing number of brands are becoming more judicious about their marketing spends. As such, marketers are going beyond search and social media, and leveraging omnichannel strategies on the open internet to reach their target audience. The Festive Season Pulse 2021 affirms that the open internet is a powerful bridge to reach new customers and the upcoming festive season is an opportune time for marketers to capture consumer curiosity and test the efficacy of the open internet.”