Indian shoppers’ top online shopping habits demystified in PayPal study

Good news for ecommerce. Indians are spending more on online shopping, and this will only go up in the coming years. PayPal and Ipsos, a marketing research company, conducted a study on consumer behaviour. The Annual Global Cross-Border Consumer Research 2016 shows that Indians shop enthusiastically from local and overseas online retailers. The study focussed on shoppers’ cross border shopping behaviour, which is evidently on the rise.

The study makes the following observations:

• Indians will continue to spend on online shopping (domestic and foreign), which will push the spending amount to Rs 875,600 crore in 2018. The growth rate is projected to be 31% year-on-year in 2017.

• Majority of shoppers prefer large screens, with 56% of shoppers choosing their desktop, laptop or notebook to shop, 29% using smartphones, and 10% using tablets

• Shopping for apparel tops the list at 54%, followed by consumer electronics at 43% and beauty products at 42%

• People shop increasingly from international online stores, and this is particularly high during Christmas and Diwali

• The US, UK and China are popular online shopping destinations with Indian shoppers

• 51% don’t complete the transaction due to high shipping fees and return fees, a long waiting period, or currency limitations

• PayPal is a favoured medium of payment, with 64% of respondents having used it in the past year

Free shipping, better products, tempt customers to wait for products

Sreedhar Prasad, partner, ecommerce at KPMG observes,

“We see an increase in shopping of tech and mobile accessories/ watches etc. from Chinese websites. These are functionally superior products at a low cost, which the Indian shopper is willing to take a risk and wait for a month to get delivered. There is another high-end set of customers who want specific products from global marketplaces and they don’t mind paying customs duties. These are in areas like designer fashion, accessories and watches, personal care products etc.”

The study shows that the Indian shopper is very aware and intelligent, and knows where to look for what needs. It also shows that majority are happy to get free shipping. Online sellers can incorporate the findings of the study in their business to ensure good returns in the year ahead.