'Amazon Great Indian Festival' Emerges Most Awaited Shopping Event For Online Purchases: Ipsos

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 ecommerce purchases for at least 44 per cent of the urban Indians polled, while the Flipkart Big Billion Days was close on the heels (42 per cent). Some of the other online shopping platforms with consumer interest included – Meesho’s Maha Indian Shopping League (34 per cent), Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival (28 per cent), Snapdeal’s Unbox Diwali Sale (20 per cent), Nykaa’s Grand Festive Sale (10 per cent) and Ajio’s Navratri Sale (5 per cent).  

Interestingly, while the online shopping festivals were seen to be popular among 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 per cent), Amazon’s Great Indian Festival (59 per cent) and Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival (41 per cent). The self-employed were most chuffed about the Flipkart online shopping event (56 per cent), followed by Myntra (55 per cent) and Amazon (50 per cent) online shopping fests. For the high education cohort, Flipkart Big Billion Days was the top choice (60 per cent), followed by Amazon’s Great Indian Festival (56 per cent) and Meesho’s Maha Indian Shopping League (38 per cent). For the low education cohort, Amazon’s Great Indian Festival was the top choice among online shopping events (36 per cent), followed by Meesho (31 per cent) and Flipkart’s (30 per cent) 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 per cent, for the west zone, the top choice was Amazon’s Great Indian Festival (59 per cent), for the north zone, Meesho’s Maha Indian Shopping League had the highest consumer interest at 36 per cent, Amazon and Flipkart were tied at the 2^nd spot (31 per cent); while for the south zone, their top preference of the online shopping event was the Amazon’s Great Indian Festival (57 per cent), Flipkart (49 per cent) and Myntra (37 per cent) shopping events. Students claimed to be most excited about Amazon’s Great Indian Festival (47 per cent); metros’ fave was the Amazon online shopping event (61 per cent), likewise for full-time parents and housewives – Amazon (40 per cent) it was. Tier 3’s most awaited event was Meesho’s Maha Indian Shopping League (34 per cent). Across age bands, Amazon’s Great Indian Festival was the top choice.  

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

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

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

Quality (80 per cent), price (77 per cent) discounts (66 per cent) and brand reputation (46 per cent) 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 per cent). Interestingly, across all cohorts and demographics festival shopping emerged as a common binding thread – though it was at a higher level of excitement among SEC A (76 per cent), self-employed (76 per cent), tier 1 (76 per cent), metros (75 per cent), west zone (74 per cent) etc. And somewhat subdued among tier 3 (48 per cent) and east zone (48 per cent).  

 “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 the 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 behaviour, emphasising the importance of omnichannel shopping being the defining reality among enthused shoppers,” states Parijat Chakraborty, group service line leader, public affairs, corporate reputation, CSR and ESG, Ipsos India.