What are the changing trends in Consumer Behaviour?

The post pandemic years have created a new lifestyle for the Indian consumer . This  has in turn changed how the consumer shops, and what the consumer purchases. Understanding this change in consumer behaviour has become even more critical for new brands in the market as well as established brands.

The same customer has a different set of choices now and has learnt newer ways through different channels to fulfil her choices.

The huge jump that we have seen in smartphone usage has influenced when and how consumers make purchases. This has led to the biggest change in consumer behaviour. When looking for a consumer need, the phase of discovery itself has thrown up a wide range of options. All it takes is a simple smartphone search that will give them a wide range of options, that can help cater to their needs. And the detailing about the product is now much more elaborate. An interest piece of information that 90% of online buyers discover their product on YouTube. This itself amounts to a huge change in consumer behaviour. The reason for this is also that the information about the product that is provided on video is far more elaborate, as it generally come from a person who has specialist in the subject.

This change in consumer behaviour has in turn changed the entire buying process.  Consumers can now discover new products, compare features, read customer reviews, and make conscious decisions.

How product reviews influence consumer behaviour

Given the wide range of choice that the customer now has easy access to, a new step in consumer behaviour is to understand who are the other users of this product.

Unlike endorsers whom the consumers saw as mega stars, who were seen as a person whose values may be linked to the brand but was not necessarily the brand user , the influencer is seen as being much closer to the real use of the product.

Endorsers have other real world skills (like sports or cinema )that give them a mega follower base. Influencers in turn are people who have interest in that category but may not be seen as huge public personalities.

In categories ranging from technical products like mobile phones where influencers like MKBHD to Gadget Guru Rajiv Makhni have a huge following , to a simple beauty cream, an influencer has a detailed opinion on the product which in turn does influence the consumer product purchase.

Statistics tell us that and 64% of consumers in India made purchases based on an influencers or online review.

A new step before you press the ‘Shop Now’ button.

An important step in the change in consumer behaviour is about getting opinions and reviews about that specific product.

Before “checking out” from their online shopping basket or visiting their nearby store, the customer can quickly browse social media sites and search engines to learn more about the products.

The new trend in consumer behaviour is to send images of selected products to the ones whose opinion you would want and in turn get their opinion before purchase. In categories like fashion, trial room pics are sent to friends and family for their opinion and only when you get the thumbs up sign is when the purchase is made.

What is the right way to understand Consumer Behaviour?

Getting into the market without understanding consumer behaviour can actually prove fatal for the brand. Hence the search for a good data platform that will help you reach the right customer.

We discovered KENTRIX big data, which is real-time and constantly evolving customer data solution that can drive  highly successful business decisions.

Kentrix is an inclusive Business Intelligence platform for consumer data-driven solutions in B2C and D2C, operating on data of 91.5 crores of Indian consumers which has profiled each household within this big data spectrum into their monthly income (Economic Segmentation), rational and insightful psychographics derived from spending habits and lifestyle affinities (Lifestyle Segmentation), and expenditure behaviour across 40+ spend categories such as housing, health care and medical, financial savings, apparel, food and FMCG, entertainment and more.

What will help you get the right consumer behaviour is their consumer lifestyle affinity or psychographic segmentation which decodes the psychological aspects influencing consumer purchase behaviour. It explains attitudes towards what products and services a person will value and spend money for.

Kentrix uses data experiences of more than 80 different collection touch-points – transaction-based data, household surveys, and qualitative market research data.