77% Indians Withheld Shopping for Big Diwali Discounts: Ipsos Survey

More than third (77%) Indians have withheld purchase decision till Diwali / Festival Season in anticipation of heavy discounts, according to the Festival Shopping Trends survey conducted by global research firm Ipsos.

“This festive season bargain-hunting may become the preferred choice for majority of Indians with the current increase in prices of vegetables and staples impacting the festival shopping budget. Higher discounts will help people save money and is an added incentive for spending on long desired items,” said Biswarup Banerjee, Head of Marketing Communication, Ipsos India.

Majority (56%) of people in India plan to shop this Diwali and remaining 44% said they won’t go shopping this Diwali.

The top 10 planned purchases items are Clothes (68%), Sweets & Dry Fruits (35%), Chocolates (24%), Footwear (24%), Mobiles (20%), Watch (17%), Bags, Belts & Wallet (14%), Perfumes/ Deodorants (12%), Sunglasses (10%) and Jewelry / Gold (8%).

Rs. 7232 is the estimated average planned shopping budget this Diwali according to the Ipsos survey. However, a large majority (70%) said that there planned shopping expenditure during this Diwali is less than Rs. 5000.

Just 6 percent Indian citizen said that their shopping budget during this Diwali is between Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 50,000. In this group, rich and higher middle class income families were significantly higher than middle and lower middle income families. Only 1 percent of rich Indians claimed that their planned expenditure during this Diwali is between Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 100,000.

Eight in Ten (81%) people plan to shop at a Retail Store in their city, and remaining 19 percent plan to shop through online marketplace.

Flipkart (70%) has emerged as the preferred online shopping destination of those people who plan to shop online, followed by Amazon (47%), SnapDeal (36%), Home Shop 18 (11%), Jabong (9%), eBay (7%), Myntra (6%), Shopclues (4%) and Naaptol (4%).

Shubhranshu Das, Executive Director – Ipsos Marketing, India said, “with 19% intending to make their purchases online, retail platforms such as Flipkart, Amazon and SnapDeal stand out as their preferred brands. The growth in online shopping is likely to continue and the focus on mobile shopping apps, an increase in mobile advertising, geo triggering options and special promotions will possibly add further impetus.”

Out of the people who said they will purchase from brick & motor retail stores, one in two (55%) people still prefer to shop from Local Retail Stores. BigBazaar (41%) stands out as a preferred destination for festival shopping in comparison to other organized retail chains.

Shoppers Stop (9%), Reliance Trends (8%), Life Style (6%), Pantaloons (6%), D Mart (6%), Croma (4%), and Star Bazaar (3%) are the other preferred big players in organized retail business.

“There is a dominating perception among consumer that purchase from local outlets can deliver better discounts through bargaining. This is likely to remain consistent as far as festival shopping is concerned,” added Shubhranshu.

Only 12 percent people intend to buy a vehicle, out of which one in ten (10%) plan to buy 2 wheelers and 2 percent plan to buy cars.

Out of the people who said they intend to purchase 2 wheelers, a whopping 51 percent plan to buy Honda 2 wheelers, followed by Bajaj (11%), Hero MotoCorp Ltd (9%), Yamaha (8%), TVS (6%), Suzuki (6%), Royal Enfield (4%) and Mahindra (3%).

Maruti Suzuki (36%) is the leading choice of people who plan to buy 4 wheelers, followed by Tata Motors (18%), Mahindra & Mahindra (14%), Toyota (14%), Hyundai (9%), Audi (5%), and Volkswagen (5%).

Ipsos Festival Shopping Trends survey was conducted through Ipsos Omnibus service (IpsosBus) in October among 1035 men and women in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Lucknow.