There are some interesting case studies on the habit of discounts and freebies on consumers, all over the world. It has been observed that discounts form a habit, which is very hard to dislodge from the minds of the consumers.
And this theory has now been confirmed by a massive app-based poll conducted by news app Inshorts and leading global research company Ipsos on the consumer behavior of urban Indian consumer.
And the most striking revelation has been the discount factor. As per the results of the poll, 54% of urban Indians won’t shop online, if there are no discounts, and if the price of a product is same in retail market near their homes. This can be a troubling trend for future digital entrepreneurs, who are going for the online retail route; because discounts can be a good strategy to acquire customers; but a bad strategy to run a business.
Indian ecommerce market, which has been hailed as the fastest growing market in the world needs some serious brainstorming sessions on methods to de-addict consumers from discount-centric online retail experience.
This poll result from Inshort-Ipsos also debunks a recent Google report, wherein it was reported that discounts is no longer a factor for Indian online consumers. The report had stated that value-added services and the convenience factor would drive more Indians to online shopping, rather than discounts; a claim which has been completely punctured by the Inshorts poll.
After Govt. of India changed FDI rules for ecommerce marketplace, and put restrictions on giving discounts by leading ecommerce portals, we have reported how the dynamics of discounts is changing as portals are now resorting to other methods of lowering the prices.
It is clear that ecommerce portals will now continue to give discounts in order to capture the market; but for how long, and how much is the question.
The poll conducted by news app Inshorts holds significance due to the fact that urban mobile internet users from top 10 cities were asked the questions, and the overall replies give us a glimpse of the mood of consumers, who actively pursuing e-shopping and other digital activities.
1.5 lakh respondents from New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Lucknow gave 12 lakh votes; and 80% of the respondents were under-35 years of age.
In another interesting question, when respondents were asked the most widely used social network between Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, the winner was Instagram with 54% vote, compared to 39% Twitter and 7% for Snapchat.
In terms of video watching, Youtube is still the numero-uno choice with 80% share, meanwhile only 11% voted Facebook and 9% voted WhatsApp. However, among the 35+ year demography, WhatsApp is little bit more popular, than Facebook.
When asked about online dating, then only 7% admitted that they met someone using an online dating app/service, meanwhile 26% said they never used one.
You can find the entire poll results here.
