Retailing was always an integral part of our society, it started with the barter system, then invention of currency made it more organized and at around 800BC concept of marketplace started. Later several inventions started making retailing more professional and systematic and during 1890-1920 mom and pop shops started. After the 1920’s multi product shops or supermarket concept came into the picture and in 1930 the first shopping mall opened in Dallas TX. Then in 1950 shopping mall culture took birth with the opening of the first shopping mall known as Northgate shopping center in Seattle and after that this culture started spreading across the globe. Next biggest revolution was starting of online retailing at around 1995 when Pizza hut and Amazon started selling products online and since then retail industry never stopped growing. It is expected that global retail sector will achieve revenues of US $ 28 trillion by 2019.Among all top global retail ranking countries, India occupies a remarkable position because of huge market potential and favorable economic and political environment. India stands third after China and Brazil for net retail sale. It is expected that Indian retail sector will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13 % and will reach to US$ 950 billion by end of 2018.
In mid 1869 India’s first organized retail market was established in Mumbai known as Crawford market and then Hogg market in Kolkata in 1874, and both started first revolution in Indian retail market. Then the second phase started in 1931, Bata shoe Co. was first to open its chain of stores, and it was followed by DCM and Raymonds. Then more organized multi-product retail outlet started coming in existence one such store was ‘Akbar ally’ in Mumbai and two more outlets known as ‘Nilgiris’ and ‘Spencer’s’ in Chennai and soon the concept accepted across the country.
E-retailing began in India when IRCTC first introduced online ticket booking, which was shortly followed by the airline service providers, namely Air Deccan and Air India. Online purchasing was welcomed by Indians with both arms, after which other service industries began to implement similar models. However, the actual e-commerce explosion happened when Flipkart came into the market with deep discounts, paving the way for other giants such as Amazon. According to a Brand Equity Foundation report of 2018, India currently is the fastest-growing e-commerce market driven by factors including foreign direct investment and evolving consumer behavior.
The Impact of Digitalization on Changing Indian Consumer Buying Behavior
With changing market conditions, Indian consumers are also changing, now Indian consumers are more demanding, brand conscious and aspirational which is creating a lot of challenges for retailers. Slowly e-commerce is becoming very popular among Indian consumers as factors such as convenience of doing shopping from anywhere any time, availability of branded products, doorstep delivery, fast and cheap internet services and cheap mobile phones are making it attractive.
According to latest report by Indian Brand Equity Foundation (2018) it is expected to reach US$ 200 billion by 2026 from US$ 38.5 billion in 2017. Though Indian consumers are price sensitive, and cash-on-delivery is the most preferred payment option as over 30 per cent of buyers opt for it in India (Indian Brand Equity Foundation Report, 2016), convenience is most important reason why Indian consumers buy online followed by price and availability according to study by BCG in 2017. Consumer behavior also changes according to product categories and according to Google India Survey Report (2013), electronic goods including mobile phones and accessories and apparels and accessories are most sold items online, other reports also supported the same.
Business Start-ups in India
Indian retail industry is growing rapidly and for its growth certain factors such as developing infrastructure, developing rural market, increasing disposable income, FDI policies, increasing brand consciousness, changing consumption basket, increasing credit friendliness and tremendous growth in online retailing are responsible. According to IBEF’s report (2016), retail industry in India is one of the largest growing industries and expected to grow to US$ 1.3 trillion by 2020, registering a CAGR of 9.7 % between 2000- 2020. It is expected that B2B e-commerce market will reach US$ 700 billion by 2020 and B2C ecommerce market will reach US$ 102 billion by 2020.
In this growth not only Tier-I, but Tier-II and Tier-III cities are also contributing. A report on online retailing in India by Google and Forrester research in 2014 showed that increasing use of mobile phones are responsible for growth of online retailing in Tier-II and Tier-III cities of India. Ken Research report (2017) based on cumulative Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) calculated from the sales of online fashion products, including apparel, footwear and accessories, segmented the market based on Tier-I, II and III and price sensitivity.
Though retail industry is growing, overall Indian market is very complex in terms of geographic spread, cultural, lingual, consumer preference and type of categories. Indian consumers buying behavior also change according to segments and even choosing retail store is highly influenced by various personal, psychological, cultural and social factors. As consumers show different behavior towards different segments, Indian retailing can be divided in various segments such as Food and Grocery, Clothing & Textiles, Footwear, Consumer Durable, Jewelry, Books-Music-Gift Articles, Travel and Tourism, Banking and Insurance, Health Care Services etc. All these sectors are served by both organized and unorganized retail formats.
Indian Wedding Market Changing
Among the fast-growing sectors, the Indian wedding industry leads the front as marriages are literally an essential part of the series of events in Indian culture. Over time, this field has gradually undergone major transformations. In a report, “India Wedding Market Outlook to 2020” by Ken Research, technology has been the reason for growth in online matchmaking, which recorded a CAGR of 21% from 2010 to 2015 and is further on the road to reach INR 20.6 billion by 2020.
Additionally, growth in disposable income, time constraint, differentiation, increased competition, and a demand for customized weddings have also led to the emergence and development of the wedding planning industry. Some of the leading names operating in this business include Fern N Petals and L’amore Weddings. The revenues in this market, reaching INR 490.6 billion in 2015, have grown at a CAGR of 10% from 2010 to 2015 and are expected to reach INR 1,606.9 billion by 2020. For detailed trends in this industry, please refer to annexure-II.
Among all the decisions, decisions related to wedding apparel are very important and this segment contributes significantly to total sale of ethnic apparel. Market for this sector is majorly unorganized and has demonstrated steady growth over the past years and expected to grow by 8.4% over the next decade from the present INR 61,679 crore based on report by Techno Park study (2017) and in this growth wedding related shopping contribute tremendously.
Brands such as Manyavar, Diwan Saheb, and Vastra have positioned themselves as a premium brand in the ethnic apparel category. With unorganized retailers various organized retailers such as Reliance Trends, BIBA, W, Big Bazar are also coming with their private label brands in ethnic segment and opened their outlets in cities like Vadodara, Indore, Patna, Visakhapatnam, Agra. With this looking at the current trend of online shopping various brands also started selling ethnic wear online such as BIBA and Fab India.
Shopping Behavior for Wedding
As wedding is an integral part of Indian cultural, decisions related to this ceremony is highly influenced by cultural factors, social, personal and psychological factors. Similarly, decisions related to apparel and accessories are also influenced by individual’s choice as well as culture, friends, family, social status and norms. A wedding is an emotional decision, and this leads the couple to plan the wedding in a memorable way. Various socio-cultural contexts influence the couple to have a wedding (Baron & Byrne, 1987). Social factors have been found to be very important during shopping related to weddings. In most of the case couples, especially brides-to-be, consult external parties to learn innovative solutions. Various external sources such as bridal magazines and bridal shows, online wedding business websites have been found influential. Therefore, marketers need to understand these factors to design impactful marketing strategies. Another important factor is culture which has been found influential during traditional events like weddings (Deshpande & Webster, 1989). Next is psychological factors of consumers which are known as freedom of choice with products or services they need from a variety of alternatives (Clee & Wicklund, 1980). Personal factor refers to the personal values of an individual that could determine his/her behavior. Literature suggested that personal factors are one of the most influential factors directing consumer behavior.
Ritika’s Dilemma: Choosing Between Online and Offline Strategies
Buying wedding apparel and accessories is a very important and highly involved decision, for this segment consumer’s look for innovation and quality products. Wedding is an emotional and integral part of Indian culture and highly influenced by family and friends. Though consumers have huge options in front of them such as organized, unorganized, offline and online, most of the Indian still prefer to buy from traditional family retail-outlet because of trust, age old traditions and most important customization and personal touch.
But with time choices of Indian brides and other family members are also changing and now they are looking for more customized, unique, branded and luxurious solutions. Brides are more experimental and do not hesitate to try something new but at the same time brand conscious too. Bollywood movies, social media, celebrity weddings, awareness related to fashion and current trends and various makeover programs intensified their aspirations and demands and not only brides, but grooms are also fashion and style conscious.
One such show on NDTV Good Times known as “Band Baja Bride” gave new heights to the aspirations of would-be brides including the girls from small towns. This serial starred in around 2012-13, with the concept of makeover of would-be brides with customized wedding apparel and accessories by a celebrity fashion designer known as Sabyasachi. It gained so much popularity that it is successfully running till now. Some of its episodes specifically featured on small town and middle-class brides and slowly this concept started gaining popularity among would be brides from metro and non-metro cities of India.
Becoming a Sabyasachi bride was a dream for every would-be bride and soon demands for this brand of products started increasing both from upper to middle class brides. Understanding the increasing demand renowned fashion designer of this show launched his retail outlets in various cities of India. Similarly, other fashion designers and branded wedding designers also opened their stores in major cities but after getting demand from various non-metro cities and increasing spending capacities of consumers from these cities, these designers started selling their products through online platform. Such as on Carma online .com or Azafashions.com, various renowned fashion designers’ products are available. With this some of the fashion designers also have their own websites to cater to the need of upcoming customers.
The Emergence of Omni-Channel Retailing
Though online and offline both, catering Indian market, overall conversion rate of browser to actual buyer is very low. According to the research that consumer who are browsing internet with buying intention, out of them 81% do not actually buy online. Slowly a new concept known as ROPO or Research online, purchase offline is becoming popular. A report by Ac Nielsen proved that Indian consumers nowadays use the internet as an information source before buying a product/service. Mostly influential rich shoppers rely on the Internet for their information. Keeping this low conversation rate in mind and the new concept of ROPO, that is, Research online, purchase offline, a new retail channel known as Omni-channel came into existence. Being available online and offline-omni channel, is getting very popular nowadays among retailers. Google defines Omni channel as “ensuring that retailer marketing strategies are geared towards enabling customer conversion on any channel”. Most of the startups now a day’s adopt omni channel to sell their products and services.
In Omni channel, consumers can check products online by smartphone, tablets, social media etc. and can also visit the physical store. In the case of wedding apparel and accessories, that involves high cost and involvement decision, Omni channel will give both exposure and touch and feel. Customer will not only get designer products; they will be able to interact with the retailer for customization. Online and offline presence is the need of the hour to sustain in these competitive environmental conditions.