This
year during the festive sale a steep competition was observed between online
shopping and traditional shopping. While offline stores enjoyed complete
dominance a decade ago the tables drastically turned this year with 48% of the consumers directly commenting
that they prefer online shopping over traditional brick and mortar shops[1]. Here
are the top 10 consumer trends we saw this Diwali:
1.
Nostalgia:
Statements such as “My mom is taking us
'Diwali Dress' shopping today,” became ultimate throwback to the 90s! Consumer’shighlighted
factors such as better prices are one of the major reasons why they preferred
online shopping over traditional shopping this Diwali
2.
Effort and aesthetics:Another key highlight this year was the
effort and aesthetics of the process, 21% of consumers were quite blunt in
pointing out that the inconveniences linked with traditional style of shopping
made them turn to more online shopping this year. Some major inconvenience
consumers faced while shopping ranged from thick traffic jams to heavy crowds.
For example, 11 % consumers felt that statements such as “People are not
spending as much as they used to on festival season” by shopkeepers is a
traditional antic used to promote footfall in their stores and has nothing to
do with the actual consumer buying habits
3.
Brand expectations rise:Consumers also suggested that the shop owner
can no longer sit idle and expect consumers to just walk into their shops if
they don’t take any efforts to deliver to additional festival requirements such
as better prices, improve aesthetics of their stores, maintain more hygienic washroom
and provide better parking facility.Consumers turned a new leaf this year
whilst exploring new ways of catering to their demands irrespective of age. We
also saw a rise in what consumers often call “Sensible shopping” (10%) where
consumers suggested that the “Consumer culture” is losing its hold and the
buyers are more educated and spending wisely. Some other reasons suggested for
a drop in buyer spending include a fear of economic slowdown (13%) among
consumers and well as a belief that there has been reduced flow of black money
in the market
4.
Brands invested more on social media: Some interesting changes we observed in
the past year from buyers to sellers are that apparels (39%) followed by E
commerce (26%) have invested the most on social media content for Diwali. Almost
64% of the content put up on social media was Images. 68% and 64% of the
content for Apparel and E commerce brands were as images. Mostly all the brands
went ahead and created their own custom festival Hashtags for the season while
only 38% of the posts which contained hashtags used generic ones such as
“Diwali” and “HappyDiwali”. We also gathered that video greetings and image
posts put up by brands for Offer and Contests gathered significant engagement
5.
More engaging posts:While mostly all brands invested in
Promotion, Greetings and Offer Posts mostly Apparel and E Commerce brands
invested on Contest posts on social media. It is interesting to note that
rather than commenting to Apparel, E commerce, Food or Automotive brands users tend
to communicate more with posts put up by Banks and Financial service. They use
the posts as a venue to raise complaints and concerns as they feel the brand
will lend them more attention
From the social media analysis we have
undertaken this year it is clear that online shopping is gripping a strong hold
within the consumer community and thus it would be apt for brands to invest in
advertising via social media content to boost themselves in the consumer’s eyes
for upcoming festivals like Christmas and New Year’s. Greeting the consumers on the festival
occasion and putting up interactive posts in the form of competitions is
another successful way to garner engagement with least investment. Another best
practice includes opting for generic and more well-known hashtags by the
consumers for the season. Lastly, proper ORM is necessary especially during
festival seasons as both the brand and the consumers will become equally active
on the social media platform. The consumers will reply, react and comment more
to posts revolving or highlighting their experience both good and bad while
interacting with the brand as a means to catch the attention of both the brand
and a larger online audience
[1]All research in this article has
been undertaken by Germin8 using the Germin8 Social Listening™ Germin8 has
identified key Diwali consumer trends by running an analytical search across
all social media platforms, they have captured an overall public social
sentiment across social networks on the current Diwali trends
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