Emerging Behaviour

India is one of the biggest markets for any e-commerce supplier. It is calculated that the Indian market for e-commerce might grow as big as $6 trillion by the 2030s. That big of a market cannot be ignored by any e-commerce player who wishes to go global.

The Urban Indian Consumer is a growing segment of the market. And as India becomes more digital, analyzing the Indian consumer’s behaviour become more and more important.

The interesting part about these behaviours is they remain uniform regardless of the gender, age or location of the Indian consumer. Every individual, despite their demographic shows these behaviours, when shopping online.

More and more Indians are leaning towards making information- centred decisions when shopping online. 85% of the Indians will check at least 2 or more data points before making a purchase. More than 50% will do additional research on the product, including reading the reviews, checking the manufacturing, and expiration dates. E-commerce has always been a subject of hesitance for most Indian shoppers as there is no physical way of checking the credibility of the supplier or the quality of the product. The more they know about the product, the higher the chance of purchasing it.

The need to be in involved in the latest trends of the world is increasingly growing amongst Indians. More and more people are seen buying products that are newly released and are ‘trending’ amongst the masses. These purchases aren’t always made because there was a need for replacement, but an attempt to own the latest and trendiest products.

With the fast pace of life in the metro cities, urban Indians fight to save each second of the day to catch up to their work. Naturally, their inclination towards products and services that save time increases, despite them costing higher than their other time-consuming counterparts. In the last year, 57% of the working Indian population has paid higher for things that help save time.

The notion of healthy eating habits and staying fit was prevalent in the country even before the dawn of Digital India. Since then, the health industry has grown and expanded over multiple e-commerce websites, along with some indie brands creating their own web stores. About 57% of Urban Indian Consumers have spent on health and wellness products in the past year, this number goes up with each consecutive year. With every brand having their products available online some way or the other, it is quite easy for the customer to compare prices, quality and benefits of the products.

Mass-produced products have always dominated markets, not just in India, but everywhere around the globe. They’re cheaper, consistent in quality and can be easily replaced or upgraded. However, there is a growing trend of customised products in certain. About 56% of Indian Consumers, in the last twelve months, have included personalized additions to the products they buy and have even paid extra for it. The categories of these customised products fit into a wide range, anything from clothes and fashion accessories to electronics and automobiles components, were customised in fit, design, colour and features to suit the preferences of their end consumer.