The Diwali festival in India is celebrated every year between October and November when the weather is pleasant, and lasts for 15 days. At this time, the hot summer subsides and the most pleasant season of the year arrives. Merchants are accustomed to changing new account books during these days in order to open the market with good luck and abundant wealth. Therefore, some Indians call Diwali their New Year.
Diwali is the grandest festival in India. Therefore, the period before and after Diwali is usually the busiest shopping period for Indians. People are busy purchasing a variety of items, from daily necessities, fashion to furniture, etc., for their own celebrations or gifts to relatives and friends. Moreover, at this time of year, Indian companies will also give bonuses to employees in advance. People have sufficient funds and their purchasing power is also strong. Things that should be used and replaced at home will be concentrated in this period. Even rural residents will spend a large part of their annual income on celebrating the festival during Diwali.
Diwali is also the most important shopping season in India. It is the best time for merchants to increase sales in a year. E-commerce platforms hope to take this opportunity to attract a group of new users who have never shopped online. During the Diwali festival in 2018, e-commerce giants Fipkan and Amazon both launched unprecedented large-scale promotions. The total transaction volume during the Diwali festival in 2018 reached US$2.3 billion. Therefore, Chinese sellers who want to do e-commerce export to India should pay attention to the marketing opportunities of this festival.
The spending trends of consumers during Diwali are as follows:
(1) During Diwali, 95% of people will buy gifts for their immediate family members, and the rest will buy gifts for colleagues, charities and temples. Sarees, clothing and jewelry are the most popular gifts among consumers.
(2) The type of clothing that Indian consumers are most interested in during Diwali is women’s ethnic clothing, followed by women’s western clothing. Interestingly, in western and northern India, skirts are more popular than saris during Diwali, while this situation is completely opposite in eastern and south-central India. In general, the four days before Diwali are the peak search period for skirts and saris. The search keywords for skirts include Diwali skirts, evening gowns, and long skirts, while the search keywords for saris include the latest sari designs, designer sari works, black sari with gold edges, and Navratra-style sari.
(3) During the 2018 Diwali festival, the search volume for home decoration increased by nearly 1.5 times. Among them, photo frames were the most popular. In addition, people also searched for home-related items such as wall clocks, digital clocks, pendulum clocks, home decorations, wall decorations, decoration tool books (such as books that teach people how to learn decoration concepts, etc.), curtains, wallpapers, etc.
During important festivals, cleaning is something that every family does. Therefore, during Diwali, a large number of families will look for cleaning services. In order to better decorate their homes, Indian consumers will also search online for keywords related to design concepts, including wall design, bedroom design, corridor design, etc.