Despite a
slowing economy and high inflation,
consumers are loosening purse strings as companies and retailers woo them with special offers in the festive season.
Jitendra Pundir, 33, zonal manager with a pharma company in Lucknow, is armed with Rs 40,000 saved over the last few months from his monthly salary of Rs 50,000. Most of it will go into buying an HP touch screen laptop with Windows 8 worth Rs 35,000, and the rest on clothes. " I wanted to buy a car, but have put it off due to high fuel prices and monthly outgo. Moreover, the day- today living expenses have shot up," he says.
The slowdown, high inflation and the bad job situation are not deterring consumers from spending this festive season, according to an exclusive survey on consumer behaviour and festive season dynamics conducted for
India Today by management consulting firm Technopak Advisors. The survey, which studied the spending pattern of 1,050 respondents in 10 cities, reveals that shoppers are expecting a higher spend in almost all key categories compared to the average monthly spend in the previous six months till September.
The survey covered consumers in age groups of 24- 34 and 35- 45 in Delhi- NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Visakhapatnam, Ludhiana, Lucknow and Indore, and their shopping trends in groceries, staples and packaged foods, apparel and lifestyle, mobile and digital products, home appliances and automobiles.
There is a lower purchase intent for more expensive items. On an average, only 45 per cent of the respondents are intending to buy mobiles, digital products, home appliances, electronics or automobiles with consumers in the mega metros more likely to make the purchase compared to the rest. Young consumers are more likely to buy these categories with 59 per cent of the respondents between 25- 34 years expected to buy cell phones compared to 48 per cent in age group 35- 45 years.
Kishore Biyani, chief executive officer, Future Group, says, " In our experience, consumption is being maintained in most categories since consumers keep up to a certain lifestyle they are used to." In September, Assocham had said that middle- and lowermiddle- income families will slash their Diwali expenditure by 40 per cent on high prices.
However, Govind Shrikhande, managing director, Shoppers Stop, differs. " In a slow economy, consumers continue spend on three ' Fs'- food, fashion and films- as all three are relatively low- ticket items. We don't expect any big caution on part of consumers."
Courtesy: Mail Today
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