Survey Discloses That 2 In 3 Citizens Are Excited About Festive Season Shopping
A study report of the Ipsos IndiaBus Festival Outlook 2022 said, at least 2 in 3 citizens (69 per cent) are excited about shopping this festival season.
Ipsos IndiaBus is an omnibus study being run on a monthly basis covering a plethora of macro topics. Its recent report said that only 69 per cent people look forward to splurging on items like apparel, vehicles, home décor, property, home appliances, mobile phones, laptops etc.
Interestingly, women were seen to be more excited about spending (73 per cent) over men (67 per cent), and the age-band disparities were seen with 18-30 year olds more excited about festival shopping (74 per cent) vis-à-vis 31-45 age band (67 per cent) and 45+ age band (66 per cent). Similarly, SEC A was more enthused about shopping (76 per cent) versus SEC C.
Big City vs Small City
The survey also showed city wise trends. Metros were seen more upbeat about spending (79 per cent), followed by tier 1 towns (74 per cent) than tier 2 (65 per cent) and tier 3 cities (61 per cent). Though, region wise differences were quite stark. West (81 per cent) and north (79 per cent) were seen to be more enthused about festival shopping while south (56 per cent) and east (50 per cent) were relatively subdued.
Parijat Chakraborty, Group Service Line Leader, Public Affairs and Corporate Reputation, Ipsos India said, “There is positivity and happiness in the air around the festival season, with spending predicted across socio economic groups, of course they will cut the coat, according to the cloth, and budgets and how much they spend would depend upon disposable incomes etc.”
Macro factors to have less impact on festival spending
Almost 1 in 2 of citizens polled (48 per cent) said they would spend higher this year as compared to the previous year, while 29 per cenr said they would spend the same as last year, while 23 per cent would spend lower this year. Across cities, age groups and socio economic groups, similar pattern was seen.
“The last two years of the pandemic had greatly impacted the sentiment around the festival season, almost taking the sheen off, with the covid fear, restrictions and the overall gloomy mood. But now the consumers are on the rebound, even with inflation and impact of war in Ukraine; we are likely to see revenge spending and citizens are actually looking forward to the festival season to loosen their purse strings. Of course, some will spend more and some less. And some wll go overboard capitalizing on all the new launches in gizmos and passenger vehicles riding on easy finance options,” added Chakraborty.
The survey also had quotas by specialist target groups of employed, homemakers, retired, unemployed, self-employed and students. The margin of error was +/-5 per cent with 95 per cent accuracy levels.
Source: Businessworld
