80% of urban internet users in India use e-commerce portals for online product research: Report

The pandemic saw several long-term lifestyle and consumption changes in the last two years. All these changes, adaptations, and revelations took place with the massive rise of digital convenience. Be it researching, purchasing products or buying services like insurance, digital platforms have now become crucial partners. These ‘digital consumers’ are more informed, participative, well-employed and affluent than the average internet users in India. They have diverse interests and an evolved lifestyle and they rely on e-commerce networks for their product research and shopping needs.

WPP’s GroupM and Wunderman Thompson in partnership with Amazon Ads has launched the ‘Content Strategies for the New-age Digital Consumer’ playbook, a complete guide for building content/creative communication strategies for the touchpoints in e-commerce networks.

This playbook will help marketers and agency professionals in making efficient decisions around revamping their online content strategies. It covers the key reasons why brands should have a separate communication strategy for ecommerce touchpoints and ideas around content and engagement strategies to efficiently drive visibility and recall with millions of ‘intent’ consumers.

A few key takeaways from the playbook:

• Rise of the ‘Digital Consumer’ : 350 Mn Indian consumers are expected to make a purchase online in 2025 as per an MMA-GroupM report, which is a steep jump from 150 MM online buyers in 2020.

• Role of ecommerce networks in consumer journeys: ~ 80% of urban internet users in India use ecommerce portals for online product research and 25% of them visit ecommerce portals for product research even for their offline purchases.

• Leveraging audience intelligence resources: Understand your TG better through product research/shopping based deterministic affinity signals.

• Content marketing levers for building integrated experiences: Establish retail readiness with optimal detail pages and innovate with immersive and integrated experiences through Stores , audio marketing , influencer led evangelization and hyper-personalized vernacular messaging.

Tushar Vyas, president – growth and transformation, GroupM South Asia said, “Brands have aimed to reshape their marketing strategies considering the consumer behaviour transformation that has taken place in the last two years. Before digital started dominating our lives, consumers preferred going to stores to make their purchases; but today, be it any commodity, it’s fascinating to see consumers doing thorough research online and then buying things online or going to stores. Digital Consumers are increasingly spending more time on emerging digital platforms and hence there is a need for a separate communication approach, which is why we’ve come up with this playbook with Amazon Ads and Wunderman Thompson to help marketers build stronger consumer connections.”

Manoj Mansukhani, chief digital officer – Wunderman Thompson South Asia said, “We saw an exponential growth of consumers moving to online shopping during Covid-19. With the trend only continuing to grow as more customers are coming online to shop from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. With marketplaces like Amazon becoming the first port of call for product searches, brands need to develop a separate content strategy to help engage with customers on these platforms. The playbook with Amazon Ads and GroupM showcases ideas for brands to help build the right communication strategy with consumers on these platforms.”

Vijay Iyer, Director-Ad Sales, Amazon Ads India commented, “Digital Channels are now an inseparable part of our lives and have forever changed why, how, what and where we buy. Ecommerce marketplaces are playing a crucial role in not just aiding, but shaping brand and product discovery. Marketers have the unique opportunity to build connections with customers through an immersive content experience rather than restricting themselves to “advertising real estate”. This playbook will help marketers and agency professionals get ideas for building customized content marketing strategies for ecommerce touchpoints.”

Here is the full playbook: