One in two Indians planning to upgrade their gadgets and smartphones this festive season: HT Media – Aroscop report

One in every four readers of HT is planning to buy a four-wheeler and one in every two is planning to upgrade their gadgets and smartphones, as per a report prepared by HT Media in association with Aroscop.

HT Media, the content and news platform with a presence across print, digital and radio channels, set out to decode the Indian consumer’s sentiment this festive season. HT Media partnered with a research agency Aroscop to conduct a pan India survey of over 13,000 Indian consumers who read various HT Media platforms, to unravel their shopping and purchase channel preferences this festive season. 

The 'Decoding the Festive Indian Shopper’ report revealed some key insights into how the consumers are planning to celebrate the festive season and their plans to spend.

According to the survey, Indians are ready for some much-needed revenge shopping and travel, after two years of lowkey celebrations.

As per the survey, 1 in 4 HT Media readers said they plan to buy a four - wheeler around Diwali and Dussehra. The most popular choice of car is a hatchback with 38% opting for it, followed by MUVs/ SUVs preferred by 31% people who intend on buying a car this festive season.

40% of the interested automobile shoppers stated that they receive 4-wheeler offers related information from newspapers, while 31% get it from digital advertisements, implying that almost 3-4th of the willing shoppers, are already utilising HT Media's print and digital platforms as channels for information on new launches, festive offers and deals.

When it comes to tech, close to one in two HT Media readers said they are looking to buy a smartphone this festive season, out of which, a whopping 76% intend to buy or upgrade their smartphone via e-commerce platforms, whereas the rest would still prefer the offline shopping experience, more than half of this population also indicated that they have a budget of over Rs 25,000 for smartphones.

Keeping up with the personal gadgets upgrade trend, 50% of the survey respondents said that they plan to buy consumer electronics, such as TVs, headphones, speakers etc., around Diwali.

Nearly 1 in 3 respondents said they would shop for wearables, a fast-emerging tech category. Of these enthusiastic shoppers, almost 60% stated that they receive consumer electronics offers related information from newspapers and digital ads.

Dhanteras and Diwali have historically been important occasions for jewellers, in addition to wedding peaks. This trend is yet again endorsed by the Indian consumers with 66% of HT Media readers saying they intend to buy gold, jewellery or investing in other gold vehicles this season, and a whopping 90% of them said that they will be visiting physical stores to buy jewellery, a great sign for retail jewellers! 

A massive 45% of Indians plan to buy home and kitchen appliances during festive such as refrigerators, food processors, air-fryers and more. Interestingly, the choice of purchase channel (online versus offline) is an equally divided poll where 50% of the people said they will buy appliances online, and the rest said they will visit retail stores to shop for appliances. 

What speaks in favour of physically shopping at stores is in fact that very experience, of physically observing and trying the products before buying them and being instantly gratified with the purchase. The same ratio and channel preferences were applicable for apparel and footwear categories too. Discounts and offers were the predominant reason for people to choose e-commerce platforms for shopping.  

Indians have missed going on vacations and eating out at restaurants the most, in the pandemic with 42% of Indians said they missed going on family vacations followed by 30% respondents saying they missed going to restaurants and movies. 

The attempt at capturing the Indian consumer sentiment towards festive spending shows an optimistic picture for businesses across the country.

With the country turning towards online channels for a large percentage of their shopping needs across categories, the opportunity for e-commerce and D2C brands to be visible to a premium audience on HT Media properties is immense.

HT Media offers a plethora of partnership options including video, display, branded content, event-led opportunities so that brands can create the right messaging in the right format, to the right audience, thereby moving their brand metrics.  

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