Forget about free dhaniya, Indians forced to change consumer behaviour as stores go surfing

The lockdown meant that vegetable and grocery shops had to shut completely or switch to online platforms to keep their businesses going. This has forced a change in Indian consumer behaviour, as it leaves no room for bargaining. Now Indians are purchasing vegetables and other consumables online at quoted prices, forced to leave behind the old habit of asking 'dhaniya' or 'mirchi' clear of vendors, a survey by Enormous Brands showed.

The web-based survey, conducted between March 30 and April 22, had 3,737 respondents in cities including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Ahmedabad.

It found that there's been a sharp upsurge in adoption of digital technology by older persons to become listed on the e-commerce bandwagon for ordering items like milk, grocery and home essentials and paying through wallets and UPI.

Around 42 % of respondents claimed they buy vegetables and other consumables without requesting prices, that is a drastic shift from a universal value-conscious, penny pinching Indian mentality, it added.

The Enormous Brands surevy also discovered that India's older population adopted digital technology faster during the lockdown, with up to 47 % higher adoption among the older  population (55-65 years) of e-commerce for ordering milk, grocery and home essentials and paying through wallets/UPI.

"The banks have already been promoting internet banking for over ten years, in only the last month the data suggest that first-time users have increased by 28 %. The maximum shift of 33 % is one of the (elderly) generation," it said.

With lockdown forcing persons at home, among the obvious choices to invest time is television set watching.

The study discovered that TV viewership grew from strength to strength during lockdown, shining over OTT platforms. It discovered that 43 per cent saw cable television as the principal entertainment in the high-income households and 13 % across the sample size re-activated their DTH/cable subscription, it said.

"Interestingly, 'news' has emerged as the brand new GEC (general entertainment category). An astounding 64 % of TV viewing time across the TV viewing population is allocated to the news headlines channels, while 43 % believe news reporting is unbiased and 27 % believe that there is a clear indication that few news channels are pro a particular political party," the survey said.

This study was conducted to greatly help brands understand how the existing situation is moulding the habits, behaviour and attitudes of Indians.

According to the survey, newspapers are poised for a strong return, with 74 per cent of the respondents saying they missed their daily newspaper. While 29 per cent have moved to reading newspapers online, only 4 % would unsubscribe from the hard copy.

"Appears like the newspaper is a habit like coffee which has grown on the Indian palette, rendering it difficult to spend the," it said.