The Shift in Consumer Behaviour – Offline to Online Shopping
The way in which many Indian consumers shop is fast changing, and the shift from offline shopping (visiting a shop and purchasing items) to online shopping (browsing through virtual catalogues and making purchases), has meant that many retailers are being forced to change or adapt, the way in which they sell their products.
Technology is a part of many more people's lives today than it ever was before, and whether you see this as positive or negative, it's a progression you'd be hard pushed to ignore. There are adverts on the television for online retailers, and social media sites are awash with eye catching promotions from companies that have made the switch to online shopping, and new ones that seem to have sprung up over night.
Consumers are turning to the internet and online retailers to improve the way they shop, whether it be for the wider selection of goods available online, the deals and discounts offered or the ability to quickly compare prices. To the online shopper, everything that they could possibly want is available at the click of a mouse, and a shopping expedition that might once have take a few hours to complete, is done and dusted within a matter of minutes and all from the comfort of their own home, or the workplace, depending on how lenient their boss may be!
Not only can you find a vast selection of products in one place, but if you've forgotten your cousin's birthday is coming up and you're too busy to hit the shops, you can simply log on, buy their gift and have it delivered directly to their door - many companies will even gift wrap it for you!
If we consider electrical items and white goods; we all like to look about and compare prices, but if we're going to do this physically, then we may need a whole day and can easily forget where we've looked and what prices we've found, whereas searching online means that we can bookmark our items and easily compare their prices. This massive growth in the ecommerce industry in India, has seen an increase in first generation start ups, and while it has forced many offline retailers to move to the online world, many have combined both and use their online stores to compliment their offline ones, and vice versa.
Whatever you think of shopping online, it's clearly beneficial for many Indian people, and the constant increase in goods purchased from online retailers, suggests that it's a way of shopping we have embraced and will continue to do so in the future. Of course many of us still enjoy to visit shops, browse, try items on and enjoy spending time filling up our baskets, but in today's modern society with its emphasis on getting things done quickly and making 'instant' purchases, online retailers may have provided us with the perfect solution to all of our stress free shopping needs.
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