Writer, Annie L is living in India. Annie L is part of our authors community since and has published 1 post.
More than two and a half decades after the liberalization of Indian economy, the country has come a long way in terms of shopping experience and the presence of international brands. Indian customers have started following the international trend, distancing themselves from traditional store shopping format and shifting to the digital platform. Luxury brands in India have been quick to pick up this trend and adapted themselves well. Seeing some brands falling casualty to the changing consumer shopping patterns, most of the surviving brands have brought radical changes in their business mode. They understand that consumer want to see the product virtually before shopping. Be it clothes, shoes, bags, jewellery, wallets, watches, sunglasses, makeup, accessories or anything under the sun, it can be found online. Customers are simply spoilt for choice.
The best part of online shopping that has hit the right chord with the audiences is the virtual reality. Through this setup customers can visit online shopping websites of brands and check out the collection and prices. It gives them freedom to choose different colours of a particular pattern of an apparel or choose different cuts and designs. Luxury brands put nicely done photo shoot images of their products. In case of apparels, luxury brands often do a modelling photo shot. Images of models wearing the apparels gives the customers an idea about the final look as well as the teaming of other apparel pieces with it, use of possible accessories and the makeup or hair style that would go well with it. Some luxury brands have move a step further by allowing the customers to view zoomed out version of images when they click or move the mouse pointer on a particular area of the image. This enhances the shopping experience of the customers and helps them make an informed shopping decision.
Online shopping in India has become an undeniable reality. Unlike before when the options topromote and advertise were limited to print, radio, television or hoardings; now everyone has their own person screens in the form of mobiles, tabs or laptops. This has helped brands to roll out focused messaging to their clients. Social media has also become very big. It is very common to see luxury brands promoting themselves through facebook advertising or sponsored ads on instagram, twitter or linkedin. These platforms have been able to get customer attention. Successful redirection to the brand’s social media pages or website has led to tracking of surfing and shopping habits of customers.
Top brands in India are making successful conversions through attractive offers and loyalty programmes. A few typical examples of good offers would be ‘Buy a purse and get a wallet free’ or ‘Shop for ₹2000/- and get 20% discount’. Witnessing and realizing the great benefit of online presence, more and more luxury brands are ensuring presence on the online platforms for maximum eyeballs.
