Diwali 2017: How Indian Online Shopping Consumers Plan to Shop this Festive Season

As the e-commerce industry gears up for the annual peak season, DesiDime,  recently conducted a survey to understand how Indians plan to shop this Diwali.

The survey was conducted Pan-India, with most of the respondents aged between 18 years and 44 years, of which 85% were men. Commenting on the survey report, Mehul Jobanputra, CEO and co-founder of DesiDime.com stated, “As the first and largest online shopping community of India, we are in a unique position to analyze the behavior and intentions of online shoppers in the country. The DesiDime Diwali Shopping Survey is a reflection of how the growth in online shopping is influencing the buying habits and shopping plans of the average Indian shopper and vice versa.”

To begin with, close to 65% people will be wrapping up their shopping 15 days before Diwali, and around a quarter of the shoppers will be doing almost all of their Diwali shopping online this year.

In fact, a very interesting piece of information revealed by the survey is that majority of the shoppers, 74.41 % to be precise, now shop online more than they do in physical stores.

Speaking about the budget for Diwali shopping in 2017,  majority of the shoppers are planning to spend around Rs.16,200 on average, with 16% of them willing to spend anywhere between Rs 20,000 to Rs.50,000 this festive season.

As far as giving gifts during Diwali is concerned, the DesiDime survey reveals that majority of the respondents said they will prefer sending/ receiving gift cards over gift items this year. While almost 50% of the shoppers intend to give gift cards worth Rs.2500 and more, majority of them will be spending a total of up to Rs.5,000 on gifting this Diwali.

In the wake of strong campaigning for digitalization in India and attractive offers on online payments during sales, credit cards have emerged as the favorite payment method while shopping this Diwali, kicking out the old favorite payment mode – Cash On Delivery, which is now the second least preferred mode of payment among Diwali shoppers.

Looks like we Indians are all geared up for the upcoming festival; but will the various grand online sales live up to expectations?