A decade ago, Martin Lindstrom published a book, Brand Sense , in which he revealed to the world that brand marketing needed to go beyond the two senses of sight and sound and appeal to all the five senses. Based on this path-breaking book, several companies spent millions of dollars in adding elements to their brands to make them stand out beyond just the visual appeal.

For example, there were certain perfumes added to shirts to make them smell fresh or special additives added to bread so that it felt soft despite having been on the shelf for three days. From new car smell to the cool feeling in talcum powders marketers have experimented with hundreds of organoleptic tricks to woo their consumers by creating a sensory perception that distinguishes them from competition.

When, a couple of years ago, e-commerce companies such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal made their advent in the virtual retail space, the big question running in my mind was, how would these portals match the real feel in wooing customers that offline retail offered? Honestly, even they had no clue.

They were riding on the fact that the consumer would trade-off the real feel of the products for the choice and convenience that virtual platforms offered. But choice is offered by even offline retail and ‘purchase convenience’ is a function of internet and nothing that e-commerce has done distinctively.

Why then are more and more people getting drawn to online shopping? The quick answer, you may think, is the discounts offered online. But my friends in e-commerce companies say they have not seen a drop in either new users or returning consumers even though they have reduced discount promotions considerably.

If choice, convenience and discounts are not the key factors anymore, why are more and more consumers still buying online? To satiate my curiosity as to why people were trading touch and feel for a uni-dimensional virtual experience, I spoke to several consumers who shopped online and examined the changing socio-economic trend to find the probable reasons. The two are detailed below.

Socio-economic changes: We Indians historically have been deprived of international labels. Even after liberalisation, not many international brands had India as their market for global expansion. The reasons were high cost of distribution and marketing in a large country such as India, unfriendly tax structures, FDI restrictions and lack of overall infrastructure. But e-commerce helped to discount these deterrents. Today we see hundreds of foreign labels wooing Indian consumers online.

Online shopping is a stress-buster: Most women (working and non-working busy mothers) I spoke to said that they browsed stuff online for stress relief. They agreed that in the process they invariably ended buying something or the other.

Thrill of discovery & control: Respondents felt there were far more brands online to choose from and this gave them the thrill of discovery. Also, the power to decide all by oneself and not be pushed by glib salespersons was a big motivator.

Economics of time and money: For regular-use items and gifting, they found online shopping much more economical as it saved them the cost of travel and time.

Apart from these findings there was one thing that all online users had in common – they still enjoyed going to malls, supermarkets and specialty stores to shop. What drew them there was the need for real feel.

One of the respondents said, “The choice of shoes I wanted to buy online was much more but I ended up buying them offline as there was a person in the shop to help me try various pairs and be with me through the selection process. I enjoy the fussing and the conversation. Another respondent said, “Shopping is an outdoor activity, it is so boring to shop sitting at home.” Yet another said shopping for her was an overall experience of browsing through shop windows, noticing other ladies, dressing up to go out shopping, trying out several things before deciding what to buy, it is not transactional like online where one just buys and checks out.

Interestingly, the same consumer who justifies online shopping also says when she yearns for the real feel of something, she sets out to shop. While the one-sense virtual world appeals to them rationally, the five-sense experiential real world helps them indulge. Both are important, they say, “like the right and the left brain”.

Consumers are not trading one for the other, they are in fact enjoying the best of both worlds.

Kaushik Tiwari, Head - Marketing, Matrimony.com

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