Change is afoot for India’s festive sales season, and for brands and retailers like you, it's an opportunity to restrategise how you win shoppers’ preference and purchase.
A critical reason to act swiftly is the shift in festive shopping interest. Although it continues to chart annual highs in the second-half of every year, the seasonal spike has become less dramatic in recent times. Why? People are increasingly thoughtful about their spending and they’re shopping over a longer stretch of the season.
As festive shopping becomes marathon-like, it pays to win the preference of major shopper groups.
Already, 1 in 2 consumers are considering other brands because they’re more conscious of spending,1 and that’s a sizable market share up for grabs. To win preference and purchase, you simply need to show up in shoppers’ journeys at the right time and place, as our research shows. When this happens, 30% of shoppers switch to their second preferred product brand, and 43% switch to their second preferred retailer.2
Our research also indicates three major groups of shoppers you should focus on: Gen Zers, premium shoppers, and non-metro shoppers. Knowing each group’s preferences and consumer buying behaviour, you can tap into the power of AI to fully show up for them and their festive purchases.
Gen Z shoppers: Visuals reign and video is supreme
Gen Zer’s purchasing power is tremendous, and they represent over 200 million active internet users in India.3
As digital natives, they prefer visual information and use image search to learn more about products they find elsewhere. So consider using AI-powered ad tools like image assets and dynamic image assets to create visually engaging and relevant ads.
Gen Zers also turn to video for discovery, and to feel confident about their purchases. In fact, more of them go to YouTube to watch both short and long form content than any other platform, and YouTube is the No. 1 video platform helping them decide what to purchase.4
Video holds immense influence over them because they find the creators to be authentic; 94% of viewers agree that YouTube creators give recommendations they can trust.5 So to win their preference and purchase, partner with YouTube creators on your festive advertising.
Hyundai went a step further when collaborating with YouTube creators for the launch of a sporty SUV geared toward Gen Zers.
To top things off, Hyundai built an immersive virtual world on the gaming platform Roblox, so that its audience and YouTube creators, such as Ujjawal Gamer and Payal Gaming, could interact and experience the car together in a personal way, yet on a large scale.
The creators, which also included GamerFleet and Gamingpro Ocean, live streamed their experience as they interacted with visitors in the virtual showroom, service center, and game booths, and raced each other on the test drive track.
Ahead of their YouTube livestreams, each creator also promoted the event on Shorts, and the result was 2.7 million livestream views and a 2.5X increase in visitors to Hyundai’s Roblox world on the livestream days.
Premium shoppers: Deep online research and CTV matter
People in India’s top income segment make up just 4% of the population, but in absolute terms, that’s 56 million people, and over 10.6 million households with premium spending power.
They may have deep pockets but some 70% of premium shoppers nevertheless say they’re on the lookout for sale periods or lower priced items.6 Their motivation is not so much affordability as resourcefulness, since they use online touchpoints 3X more than offline ones for research.7
To win preference and purchase among this digitally savvy group of premium shoppers, you can use the AI-driven Performance Max with Search broad match. This power pairing lets you show up on all new and unexpected Search queries and find untapped demand to drive incremental conversions across all of Google's channels, including Display, Gmail, Maps, and YouTube.
Another way you can engage premium shoppers online is via connected TV (CTV), since 75% of viewers in the NCCS A category of premium households are cord cutters or cord shavers, who consume little or no linear TV and who’ve instead adopted CTV.
In particular, logged-in viewers spend on average 2.5 hours a day watching YouTube on TV screens,8 and over 65% say they search for products and brands online after seeing an ad on YouTube CTV.9
To better engage premium shoppers with your CTV campaign, use Display & Video 360. The AI-powered solution lets you reach this audience wherever they stream CTV content, whether it’s YouTube or other over-the-top services. With Display & Video 360, you can also tap into the power of Google AI to optimise the way you plan, buy, and measure your CTV campaigns to achieve your business goals.
Non-metro shoppers: Hyperlocal is the way to go
With over 1 billion people living in India’s non-metro, or Tier 2+ cities, this shopper group is influential. Their consumer spending of $1.4 trillion is 3X that of India’s top 60 cities,10 and they contributed to almost 63% of India’s ecommerce market share in 2022.
To win the hearts and shopping carts of non-metro shoppers, go hyperlocal. One way is to collaborate with local YouTube influencers, given that 84% of digital consumers in Tier 2+ cities consider these influencers to be more trustworthy and credible than traditional celebrities.11 From the dialect they speak to the cultural references they make and the topics they’re interested in, influential local YouTube creators are able to relate closely to non-metro shoppers.
To further increase the relevance of your video campaign with local creators, you can use the geography targeting option in Display & Video 360 to deliver your content to non-metro shoppers. Dynamic lineups can also help your ad show up in videos relevant to local interests and the seasonal moment.
With festive shopping intent likely to be drawn out this year, there’s no better time than now to kickstart your seasonal marketing. Tap into the power of AI in advertising to show up for the major shopper groups at the right time and place with the information they need, and you’ll be ready to win their preference and purchase.
Want more insights on shopper trends? Login here.
