Indian Men Shop 3 Times More Than Indian Women: Report By Sokrati Reveals Interesting Insights

The Indian ecommerce market has grown in leaps and bounds in the last few years. It is expected to be worth $38 Bn, a 65% jump over its net value of $23 Bn in 2015. Also, India’s online Indian population is estimated to cross the 450 Mn mark in 2016—a growth of 30% YoY and covering nearly 35% of the Indian population—according to Internet Live Stats.

Despite such rave statistics, etailers are constantly struggling with issues like cart abandonment, lower click through rates and order cancellation. Digital media firm Sokrati recently conducted a research titled “Indian Ecommerce Web Trends,” that included data from 100+ retailers during Q1 2016. It focused only on web data, across desktop and mobile devices. As per the report, an average Indian shopper has made 1.2 purchases in Jan-Feb-Mar 2016. Certain niche categories like sports & fitness have seen higher repeat purchases than others, that too on larger screens.

Here are some major findings from the report:

Indian men shop online 3 times more than Indian women

Indian men shop online more than women and convert 75% better, with about 21% higher average order value. Also, they tend to take the final call on high ticket items, especially in categories like Electronics and Furniture.

8 out of every 10 orders come from tier-1

Tier-I cities massively dominate the online purchase scene in India with eight out of every 10 orders coming from them. Even the average order values are 40% higher than other tiers, owing to factors such as higher disposable incomes, proportionately better access to larger screens, high speed internet, and overall better logistics.

65% of shoppers still prefer personal computer

Realistically, larger screens (12”+) offer a much richer experience for online shoppers, enabling them to do better product research (price comparisons, reviews, etc) before zeroing in on a product. Research shows that more than 65% shoppers still prefers PCs and they also have a 23% higher average order value compared to smartphones.

CoD is still the most preferred payment mode

Although, there is a push for cashless economy with plastic payments and net banking, when it comes to online purchases, CoD still takes 70% of the pie. However, it has been seen that average order value on online payments and cards is 20% higher than that on CoD.

Impulsive categories like clothing and mobile accessories make up 60% of online purchases

Indian shoppers love to spend on accessorising themselves or their smartphones, with over 60% transactions occurring in these two categories. In terms of average order values and overall revenues, electronics still rule all other categories.

60% Of all online purchases happen during business hours

Indian shoppers prefer office hours, i.e. 12pm-5pm on weekdays, to complete most of their online shopping; with Wednesdays & Thursdays getting most of the orders.

Some Interesting Facts!!

• Click through rates (CTR) are higher for men when your ad creatives have darker background shade with price oriented messaging vs. lighter coloured shades for women with popularity oriented messaging.

• Incorporating regional tastes in your image creative depending on your targeting could boost click through rates (CTR) by up to 60%.

• Web analytics is very well-evolved compared to mobile app analytics. It provides amazing data to analyse and optimise the entire experience for a shopper.

• Ad creatives with multiple product angles tend to have higher click throughs and drive high intent customers than those with only a single product angle.

Access the full report here.

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