Research by BCG has identified five key findings into the online shopping behaviours of consumers in India. The study found that omnichannel is far less important than many marketers presume. Only 5% of purchases in India are the result of an omnichannel pathway. On the other hand, purely offline pathways account for 78% of purchases, and purely online channels account for 16%. It also found that shopping habits differ substantially according to product category. For example, food and fast-moving consumer goods are mostly bought offline, whereas film tickets, travel tickets and small appliances are mostly bought online. The third finding from the report was that online impulse purchases are becoming increasingly common. For example, over half of online clothes purchases are done on impulse, rather than planned in advance. The report also found that the same shopper is likely to follow different purchasing pathways on different occasions. This throws doubt on the value of segmenting users based on whether they bought an item online or offline. The final finding from the report was that a person's comfort with using the internet and the size of their home city were more closely related to how frequently they bought online, than demographics. People from large cities who are comfortable online are more likely to buy online more frequently.
