Excitement Among Indian Shoppers Jumps to 68 Percent, Driving Consumers’ Intent to Spend This Festive Season

• Desire to spend exceeds impact of inflation
• Direct to consumer (D2C) a draw for shoppers

Excitement among Indian consumers for the upcoming festive season is at an all-time high, according to the second Festive Pulse Survey by The Trade Desk (Nasdaq: TTD). The survey highlighted that 68 percent of Indians are excited about the upcoming festive season sales, an increase from 59 percent last year. In addition, two in three shoppers intend to spend as much or more this festive season.

Buoyant optimism prevails over inflation concerns

Despite rising inflation, the propensity to spend among urban Indians is the highest this year since the pandemic. This optimism is reflected in consumer eagerness to splurge this festive season. The survey shows that nearly 40 percent of consumers plan to start shopping in mid-October or earlier. As shoppers begin to splurge on their festive shopping, almost half (46 percent) intend to spend more on travel experiences than in previous years. Nearly six in 10 consumers plan to spend on gifts for family and friends, while more than half intend to splurge on food, beverages, and entertainment.

Direct to consumer (D2C), a draw for shoppers

As consumers begin buying more online, numerous brands have also accelerated their direct-to-consumer (D2C) ecommerce offerings. The survey affirms that D2C channels are gaining traction amongst consumers. Nearly seven in 10 shoppers (66 percent) intend to use D2C sites for festive shopping. The data underscores that in this ever shifting ecommerce landscape marketers have the opportunity to enhance their omnichannel media strategies and engage with consumers directly.

Tejinder Gill, General Manager of The Trade Desk in India, explains, “As consumers spend more time online for both work and play, brands are scaling their digital marketing efforts to boost their ad dollars across different channels on the open internet. The high optimism among Indian consumers this festive season will likely attract even more brands, which will lead to advertising clutter in the digital space. By working with data-driven platforms like The Trade Desk, marketers can manage their omnichannel media campaigns and capture critical attribution and measurement data to understand how they can optimize their media spends this festive season.”

Loyalty for tried-and-tested brands in certain product categories

The survey also indicated that consumer preference for trusted and familiar brands varied across product categories – an insight that marketers could factor into their advertising and promotional strategies. It emerged, for instance, that Indians demonstrate loyalty to trusted brands in product categories such as Health & Personal Care (60 percent), Consumer Electronics (53 percent), Makeup & Fragrances (51 percent) and Finance (51 percent). On the other hand, in categories such as toys, games, and collectibles, 68 percent of Indians do not have such a strong brand affinity.

From increasing digital activity across apps and devices to a greater willingness to try new brands, the pandemic has fundamentally reshaped the way consumers shop. Consumer attitudes toward companies and brands are constantly influenced by various touchpoints throughout their online experiences. As a result, brands have an opportunity to be timely, relevant, and well-directed with their advertising campaigns. For marketers looking to optimize their budget towards driving new customer acquisition and retention, digital channels like over the top (OTT), display, native and streaming audio play a key role as they offer better precision and measurement opportunities. 

Survey Methodology

The survey was conducted online by YouGov amongst a nationally representative sample of 1,005 Indian adults, from 2-8 August 2022. All data was weighted by age and gender to reflect the latest Indian population estimates.