Understanding the Indian Buying Behaviour and Preparing Your Online Businesses for the Festive Season

India has an enormous online shopper base of 14 crores, which is the third biggest in the world. Be that as it may, the market remains largely untapped to arrive at the 60 crores+ of internet users in India. Along these lines, any sort of online business has a huge potential to increase and fill in the coming years. For this, e-retailers need to have a fairly good comprehension of buyer behaviour online.

Last year's festive season saw an enormous ascent in e-commerce deals. From October 2020 to November 2020, gross deals for brands and sellers were Rs 58k crores. That is an over 65% increment from 2019. As a business owner, you can anticipate an enormous expansion in revenue, if you settle on the best choices. Along these lines, this is the perfect opportunity to begin preparing your internet-based business for the fabulous merry season. Here, we are sharing insights on Indian consumer buying behaviour and tips to better prepare your online business for the festive season.

Top 5 insights on buying behaviour of Indian online consumers:

• An e-shopper spends less than 10 minutes on a platform per minute

On average, visitors go through ten product pages before settling on a purchasing choice. In this way, prior to adding any item to their carts, customers will go through every product page in less than a minute. Accordingly, brands have restricted opportunities to establish a connection in the personalities of their store visitors.

• Vernacular platforms are more important than you think

Users increasingly search for products in their native language. One in three new e-retail user’s visits through a vernacular platform interface. Assess your target audience and add product descriptions in vernacular languages. 

• Influencers have a growing influence

Approximately 40% of online shoppers made at least one purchase through social media channels (e.g., Facebook, Instagram). People tend to buy products or services recommended by their favourite influencer because there is a greater trust factor. Identifying the right content creators and leveraging them for your business will go a long way to generate sales and increase brand awareness. 

• Cash-on-delivery still remains the key

The utilization of advanced instalments and credit has, obviously, sped up, and will keep on doing as such. Be that as it may, cash buys are altogether high in any event, even during the pandemic.

• More customers keep coming back to D2C brands

People are becoming brands, and brands are becoming people. There has been an explosion in direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands in India in the last two years. Brands are finding innovative ways to reach out to customers and give them a unique experience. 

Preparing for the festive season by remembering and applying the following focuses:

• Setup your inventory

Make sure that you don’t go out of stock during peak shopping days. There is a high possibility you will see a spike in orders. Along these lines, reach out to your providers ahead of schedule to check if popular items will be accessible reliably. Survey your stock as right on time as could be expected. Stock up on top-of-the-line items get sufficient packaging material and organize everything.

• Introduce holiday offers

Strategically introduce offers during the festive season. Let people know how your product offers more value for money. You can have promo codes and discount sales. Select the products you would like to keep on sale and promote them separately. Choose in advance what products to sell at a markdown or you could keep everything under discount sales. Break down earlier year's deals to discover which items are in demand.

• Optimize your website

A good website is required to keep your online business professional.If you haven’t optimized your online store with SEO, you need to do it now! Find out which keywords are most popular related to your product or store. For this, you can use an SEO tool or a simple Google search. Perform an SEO audit to check for any issues. Additionally, ensure to check your page speed andensure your website is mobile-friendly. You can even have a new theme for your online store to match the festive mood.

• Make the user experience smooth

A holiday shopper wants a hassle-free experience. So, to ensure customer satisfaction you must have a smooth check-out process, provide good customer support and lastly provide multiple and safe payment options.

• Be active on social media

Do explore what sort of content your crowd will figure out useful during this season. For this, focus on festive patterns and perceive how your item coordinates with them. Instagram is an incredible spot for private companies to showcase. Make great quality recordings and pictures or hire a social media manager. Build momentum in advance for holiday sales. You can create a countdown till the day the discount sales begin.

- This article is penned by Akash Gehani, Co-Founder and COO, Instamojo.