The shopping season has officially returned to the Indian subcontinent. While the first phase of festivities (typically) kicks off with the onset of Navratri (sep 29) till Dussehra (oct 8), Indian retailers will have clocked above 40% of their annual sales within this ten day window alone. For consumers, ‘better deals’ take precedence over attributes like faster shipping during this season. In fact, retailers will have adjusted their pricing to strongly reflect these consumer preferences — a pair of women’s running shoes, for instance, will have a discounted price of 19% pre-diwali and upto a flat 50% discounted price on the day of.
In a country with over 400M active online users, customer fealty during this season is even more fickle than usual. The growing number of online consumers are heralding new buying behaviors especially from tier 2 and 3 cities. According to Google Insights, 70% of Indian