Electronics, smartphones, home decor & travel to drive demand this festive season, reveals ZestMoney survey

A survey conducted by ZestMoney, India’s leading and fastest-growing digital EMI/checkout finance platform, revealed that Indian consumers are excited for the upcoming festive season as six out of every 10 respondents plan to splurge and shop. About 67% of respondents said they would spend either more or the same as last year, an indication of a strong revival in consumer demand and buoyant optimism amid inflationary concerns.

ZestMoney conducted the pan-India survey to understand the pulse of customers and their preferences ahead of the festive season. The survey saw over 7,300 participants with Gen Z and Millennials being the majority.

About 20% of the respondents said they may spend lesser than last year due to inflationary costs while 13% of them said they still haven’t made up their minds.

Overall, consumer optimism remains high as 63% of the participants said they have solid shopping plans for this festive season. Of them, over 55% plan to purchase electronics and smartphones, followed by fashion (17%), Home decor (13%) and jewelry (13%). Domestic travel, personal care products, and automobiles were other popular categories that respondents plan to spend on.

As shopping fests are set to begin shortly, a whopping 58% of respondents said that deals and offers will be the most important factors while making purchase decisions, followed by budget (29%).

As consumers clearly indicated that they are looking for maximum value, a significant number of respondents evinced keenness to use low-cost cardless/digital credit solutions, the survey noted.

About 60% of the participants responded that they would choose credit options such as EMIs for festive shopping, while 40% plan to use their savings.

The propensity to spend more on shopping this festive season seems higher among a little over 50% of respondents who revealed that they plan to spend between Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh in the coming months.

Commenting on the survey, Lizzie Chapman, CEO & co-founder of ZestMoney said, “We expect this to be a solid festive season. Despite the macro environment and inflation, there are clear indicators that the festive cheers may be back on the back of strong and optimistic consumer sentiment. We've already witnessed a 5X increase in new customer applications in the last few months. We expect smartphones and electronics to be the largest category, followed by large home appliances, fashion and home decor. Travel is also picking up solidly with people planning vacations well in advance. We expect solid demand at offline stores as merchants offer some great deals. Our offline business has seen 100% growth over the last three months and the trend is expected to continue. We anticipate a similar demand over the next three months for the overall business.”

“It is also interesting to see that a majority of survey respondents see EMI as a viable option for powering their festive shopping. We have always believed that EMIs are a smart way to shop as it helps customers spread the costs at low costs, in turn helping them manage finances. This is also evident from our merchant network as there has been a phenomenal surge in interest from our partners to enable digital EMI at their stores. We have doubled our reach at POS (point of sale) machines over the last year, allowing customers to use ZestMoney at multiple touch points. Our conversations with them indicate they are anticipating double the demand compared to last year. Consumer sentiment remains very bullish for the next 3 months,” added Chapman.

While the intent to shop online remains higher, 65% of the respondents say that they are inclined to shop at both online and physical stores.

Travel also emerged as one of the preferred plans. Over 71% of respondents with travel plans say they are most likely to pick domestic destinations such as Goa, Manali, Kashmir, Kerala, Agra, and Shimla emerging as the top travel destinations. 29% of respondents said they have started planning for an international holiday in the coming months with Bali, Thailand, and the Maldives topping the list of their choices.