High percentage of mobile purchases expected during Black Friday in India: Picodi

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Nov 21, 2018

A recent Picodi survey found that mobile phone purchases are expected to be high this Black Friday as 32 percent of Indian shoppers surveyed plan to take part in the sales.

Despite the fact that the festive season sales have just ended and Indian consumers spent an astronomical amount on discounted items, this week’s Black Friday sales are set to encourage yet more spending. Picodi conducted a survey using its own data and a survey conducted in October 2018 to discern possible spending patterns for this year’s Black Friday sale in India.

Black Friday starts on November 23 but some brands commence their sales in the preceding days. Picodi found that 32 percent of Indians in their survey plan on spending money in the sales and the firm attributes this to the increased amount of marketing for the sale event that was not well-known in India only a few years ago.

According to the survey, 66 percent of shoppers save up money specifically to spend in the sales but 16 percent do not have sufficient funds and, as they still wish to shop, plan to pay with instalments. Another 18 percent of consumers said that they earn enough to shop the sales.

The survey found that most shoppers plan to buy two to three products (42 percent) and 12 percent intend to buy over five items. A sizeable percentage also plans ahead and 59 percent have an idea of what they will buy before the sales start. This is attributed to the increasing number of guides about how to shop the sales.

Although in other countries, like the U.S., where Black Friday is a time to buy Christmas presents, Indian consumers, many of whom do not celebrate Christmas, choose to use the occasion to buy something for themselves. Fifty eight percent said that they will shop for themselves and 23 said they would buy something for the house with only 16 percent planning to buy Christmas gifts.

Last year, the average Black Friday discount on offer was 46 percent and the most popular shopping device was a mobile phone. Mobile purchases were at 73 percent last year followed by desktop purchases at 24 percent and tablets at three percent.

Mobiles are expected to be equally if not more popular this year, especially as more and more fashion brands are developing their own shopping apps for smart phones.