75% consumers will shop online this festive season as safety weighs: Survey

Study says 66% will go to shops for festival shopping, but cautiously, with masks, social distancing and a greater reliance on digital payments and services

A survey released by the Retailers Association of India (RAI) on Friday regarding trends this festive season shows that 75 per cent consumers will turn to the online channel to shop as safety and hygiene remain uppermost on people’s minds.

The study, done jointly with market research company LitmusWorld, says that 66 per cent will go to shops for festival shopping, but will do so cautiously, with masks, social distancing and a greater reliance on digital payments and services.

 Almost 53 per cent of the respondents said that they would shop for apparels and 47 per cent said they would look for appliance and electronic items. Overall, 80 per cent respondents surveyed were keen on buying products this festive season.

Over 800 people were contacted for the study, which was done online over the last 15 days, across cities.

"Retailers are looking at the festive season with some amount of cautious optimism. While online is the primary mode of discovery, consumers are looking forward to purchasing at physical stores too," Kumar Rajagopalan, chief executive officer, RAI, said. He said that omni-channel retail would grow and that consumers were feeling the need to reconnect after months of staying at home. 

The findings tie in with what the RBI said last week in its consumer confidence survey. While the RBI's consumer confidence index saw its third successive all-time low in September, the future expectations index was seen holding up. Households were more confident for the year ahead with the future expectations index improving for the second successive survey round, the RBI said.