It is that time of the year, again and needless to say brands have left no stone unturned when it comes to promoting products and services with a clutch of offers. According to industry estimates typically every year advertising spends increase by 5-10% as brands release an advertising blitzkrieg. “A recent survey indicates a 23% positive shopping outlook for upcoming festivities. Brands in fashion, jewellery and footwear are expecting double-digit growth, possibly up to 20% in the third quarter. E-commerce GMV is expected to grow at 18-20% to reach Rs 90,000 crore. The online growth is driven by growing online shoppers especially from tier-2, tier-3 cities, reducing delivery time and improving customer experience,” Anand Ramanathan, partner, consumer industry leader, consulting, Deloitte India told BrandWagon Online.
Offline versus online
60% of urban Indians are planning to shop during Dhanteras this festive season, as per a recent YouGov study. Interestingly, the majority of the shoppers are expected to be from North India, that is 41%, followed by West India at 22%. Moreover, Gen-X at 35% accounts for the most consumers, followed by Millennials at 33% and Gen-Z at 25%. Meanwhile, this festive season will witness the largest number of direct-to-consumer (D2C) players participating, as per a recent Redseer report. Taking a larger view, D2C brands’ revenue growth in India (40% projected for 2022-27) is 1.6X that of the broader e-tailing growth and more than 3.6X of the broader retail market. One in two consumers are willing to increase their spending this festive period compared to last year. “As customers across Bharat gear up for the festive season, we are excited to enable brand partners, and sellers and serve customers across the country. We continue to invest in building a consumer experience and to empower Indian SMBs with digital transformation and infrastructure, thereby maximising seller and partner success across the country this festive season,” an Amazon India spokesperson said.
Interestingly, another study conducted by Nielsen Media and commissioned by Amazon India suggested that 81% of consumers intend to shop online during this festive season. While it is believed that apparel and accessories rule the list of items with 46%, the other focused market will be mobile phones and gadgets followed by home appliances.
What is to be noted is that the Redseer report points out that since the inception of the first online festive season in 2014, the e-commerce market has grown by almost 20X in annual gross merchandise value (GMV) and 15X in annual active user terms. The report also revealed that the annual GMV in CY14 stood at Rs 27,000 crore, which grew to Rs 5,25,000 crore in CY23.
Its brands’ world
To be sure, the strategy remains the same – which includes brand launches, and array of discounts and offers. This year too, the legacy continues with Myntra roping in celebrity duo Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani in their festive campaign ‘Dress-up season’. Add to this IKEA’s ‘All things festive’ campaign, Amazon’s pre-festive campaign ‘Khushiyan apno ki, aur apni bhi’, among others. “We are optimistic that this year’s festive demand will contribute significantly to overall growth for 2023. The festival sales of consumer durables constitute a high percentage of annual sales across the industry, and water heaters sales typically see an increase during the last three months of the year,” Parag Kulkarni, senior vice president-international and president, A. O. Smith India, added.
In this festive season, South Korean skincare brand Laneige aims to extend its reach to a broader audience. “We will be collaborating with influencers to promote the brand’s sales offerings and have plans to do influencer campaigns and put in our ad budgets for our major sales or offers. We are looking forward to the Amazon Prime sale, Nykaa Pink Friday sale and Myntra EORS sales,” Mini Sood Banerjee, assistant director and head of marketing and training, Amorepacific Group, expressed.
Meanwhile, the founder of Wellbeing Nutrition, Avnish Chhabria, states that this festive season will be a transformative time. “As a wellness brand, one of our key hopes is that people will start considering wellness as an integral part of their gifting options. Moreover, we are anticipating a significant uplift in customer engagement and sales, with an expected 30% increase over the previous month,” Chhabria noted.
Laneige claims that it plans to increase the advertising budget by 10-15% for this festive season. “We are mainly in digital marketing and hence would like to keep it in a similar manner,” Banerjee added. For Chhabria too online will account for the majority of sales. “We plan to allocate 70% of the efforts to online and the rest 30% to retail, in-store experiences,” he added.
TV commercials are the one marketing channel which will have the most influence on purchasing decisions, followed by social media with 44% and brand websites with 39%, as per the YouGov report.