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Shoppers in India are freeing themselves from the price shackles.
Smartphones, laptops, bikes and SUVs topped consumer’s wish lists for this holiday season, according to the latest IBM Social Sentiment Index on consumer shopping preferences in India. Style and design, apart from price, accounted for the majority of the social buzz when it comes to purchasing preferences, indicating Indian consumers shift from being price-conscious.
Based on data culled from social websites online – social listening, as it is referred to, analyses unfiltered attitudes and actions, distinguishes between sincerity and sarcasm and even predicted trends as they surface online. Being able to quickly understand and respond to consumer trends can help brands make more informed decisions through useful insights gleaned from the millions of social media interactions people have daily, says IBM.
With this kind of data marketers can better measure and understand public opinion on customer issues such as shopping during the 2013 festive season. The index leverages the latest IBM analytics technologies to help businesses predict trends and future consumer actions.
Preferences Out of the top 10 products on consumers’ wishlist, over 75 per cent had wished for smartphones, laptops, bikes and SUVs.
Style and design emerged as the single most important variable governing preferences for formal wear. Price had very limited impact in this segment.
Quality and price accounted for almost three quarters of influencing attributes when purchasing consumer electronics. Style, design and price jointly drove decisions for consumer durables – together impacting 46 per cent of preference decisions. Style and design was also an important determinant for purchase of automobiles.
Customer care and price featured above style and design for preferences of four-wheelers.
Nearly half of the consumer preferences for two-wheelers were influenced by size and space of the vehicle. Price was a criterion for only 26 per cent.
IBM identified top categories and sub-categories of products based on consumers wishes recorded in iWish, which was created by IBM, inviting consumers to record their product wish-lists. The wish-lists were then mapped to discussions and sentiment on various popular social media platforms to understand and analyze conversations. In all, 151,000 conversation strings were tracked.
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