Online Shopping is not the future of shopping!

Blasphemous as that may sound in today’s scenario of mushrooming ecommerce companies, and aggressive pitches by online marketplace models, e-tailing in the impersonalised form it exists right now is not the future of all shopping. The local stores and retail outlets, with their very special connection with shoppers in the form of personal attention and ease of after sales services, still very much have the share of mind as well as share of wallet of their regular customers.{adinserter 3}

In a recent survey conducted by Findable- India’s leading local shopping platform, across metros in India to understand their choices for shopping experiences through offline and online channels, suggests that the local retailer is still the major to-go-for mode of shopping especially for daily use items. For most other categories, the respondents prefer a mix of offline and online channels.

The survey was based on 60:40 ratios of male and female respondents, lying in the age group of 18 to 45 years, and majority of them (70%) were working professionals, while the rest fell into the categories of students, self-employed entrepreneurs or homemakers. The sample size was an equal mix of single and married respondents.{adinserter 3}

Key Findings:

*64% buyers combine a mix of offline and online shopping.

*78% of those buying online prefer browsing and buying through a website, while 13% prefer through a mobile application.

*Major problems faced by online shoppers are lack of customisation and personal attention (49%), followed by non-availability of certain brands or products (43%), delivery hassles (38%), and lack of trust regarding the product’s origin (30%).

*44% prefer scheduled delivery according to their convenience as the most desirable method of product delivery to them, when they buy onine.

*75% of those polled still prefer to shop for food and grocery from nearby stores, followed by 54% for clothes, and 47% for footwear.

*69% say shopping is a combination of planned and impulsive buying for them.

*Issues faced in offline shopping: 68% mentioned extra time consumption while going from shop to shop, and another 47% cited distance and parking problems in market areas.

*75% want to check out the range of options available In retail stores before making their purchase decision.

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This was a guest post by Pravin K Gupta.