Shopping: chore to cure

RETAIL: Indians are shopoholics, but retailers must watch the finer trends.

Shopping as an amusement activity? It's hot in India, by the look of it. According to an online sample survey carried out by AC Nielsen, 22 per cent of Indians go shopping every week, primarily to amuse themselves, and about 32 per cent once a month.

This is revealed by a Consumer Confidence survey carried out by the market research firm across 22,000 Internet users in 42 countries.

Indians, it turns out, are greater shopoholics than most. Credit the mall phenomenon. "With increase in the sheer numbers of malls and modern format stores," says Sarang Panchal, executive director, customised research, AC Nielsen, south Asia, "shopping has almost become a national pastime in the country's cities. Strong economic growth, along with booming young adult populations with unprecedented levels of disposable income, has made people more conscious of the latest trends and fashions."

"Fashions" is an apt word. On attitudes towards specific product groups, while 71 per cent term grocery shopping as a "necessary chore" (something for retailers to ponder), just 46 per cent give clothes' shopping that tag.

In fact, a fifth of all Indians surveyed consider apparel shopping a favourite form of shopping, which lends credence to the retail assumption that clothes are the first to reach market "take off" point as a country reaches the $1,000 per capita GDP mark.

Overall, Asians rank as the world's most enthusiastic shoppers, with a quarter of them saying that they enjoy shopping once a week. What's more, as many as seven of the top 10 nations that shop once a week simply to amuse themselves all hail from Asia "" Italy being the sole European inclusion in that list.

While it would be a while before the term "retail therapy" takes on the same connotation in India that it has in places like Sweden and Japan, where respondents see clothes' shopping as a therapeutic experience in itself, India is fast getting there with fast-evolving sensibilities and the increased availability of well-marketed brands and products designed to meet needs beyond the mere functional.

In fact, India, like China, is a retail market not to be ignored. "These millions of consumers represent the 'dream generation' for international manufacturers and retailers," says Panchal, "No wonder that global brands are all clamouring for a share of the booming consumer markets in India and China, and are investing heavily to build brands in the minds of today's and tomorrow's generation."

As the retail experience in some categories turns up the comfort curve, it may begin to affect expectations in "chore" categories too. Even price aggressors like Big Bazaar may have to adapt if primary shopping comfort becomes what's called a "hygiene factor".