Why E-Commerce Brands Must Pay Closer Attention To Bharat
The online Indian consumer segment is no longer dominated by users who prefer to use the internet in English as their primary language. With as many as 22 official languages and several dialects, it is unsurprising that 49%* of urban active internet users in India exhibit a strong affinity towards Indic languages in its internet consumption. The rise of these users, who we collectively refer to as Bharat, promises to be the next growth frontier for consumption, and e-commerce brands are quick to dive in.
However, to effectively reach out to Bharat, it’s critical to understand what defines Bharat and how it behaves. ShareChat’s latest report Bharat - The Neo India answers these questions.
Bharat is affluent and engaged
Contrary to popular belief, Bharat is both affluent and engaged. It is over-indexed in NCCS A and higher education segments compared to the overall urban active internet user. Bharat’s affluence is also evident in its willingness to spend on key consumption categories.
Bharat loves online shopping
Bharat’s growing aptitude for technology and an appetite for lifestyle products seems to be building a ready and strong market for e-commerce brands to tap into. An affluent and educated Bharat also shows higher affinity for online shopping, making it one of its top three online activities.
Bharat also thrives on Shopping Apps - placing it amongst the top five most engaged app categories.
A ready shopping list
Bharat is certainly not to be left behind its India counterparts when it comes to making lifestyle purchases. Gadgets, travel bookings, food, beauty & skincare, clothing & accessories and electronic goods occupy top spots among Bharat’s shopping categories.
Among these, gadgets have delivered a significantly remarkable annual growth, with 46% Bharat purchasing gadgets online in 2021, up from 37% in 2020.
Bharat looks to e-commerce
In addition to its consumption and purchase behaviour, what makes Bharat a specially apt segment for e-commerce is the influence of e-commerce sites in its purchase decisions. E-commerce sites are one of the top three influencers in buying decisions for Bharat, with 37% of Bharat deferring to them.
E-commerce getting it right with Bharat
The growing demand for technology and lifestyle products among Bharat has not missed E-commerce brands’ notice. Tapping into this viable and growing market, E-commerce brands are strengthening their marketing strategies to include Indic language-first social media platforms as key communication channels for product promotions.
In its “Big Saving Days” campaign, Flipkart launched an all-India campaign on year-end discounts in 6 different Indic languages. In order to reach Bharat audiences, Flipkart partnered with ShareChat, leveraging the only social media platform with largest Indic users, to drive engagements and promotions in all six languages.
ShareChat delivered by creating sales communications of the offer in multiple languages to its largest Indic user base. The campaign was successful in driving engagement with an impressive 3.24 Cr impressions and achieving Flipkart’s objective of increasing brand reach.
Similarly, Amazon India took its first steps in language enablement to include 4 Indic languages in its app. To create awareness at scale about this offering, the brand partnered with ShareChat and leveraged ShareChat Chatrooms, an exclusive feature of ShareChat’s live audio conversation platform. Through a multi-episode audio show titled ‘Bana Raai Ka Pahaad’ featuring popular celebrities, the brand engaged with its desired audience segments. The campaign achieved more than 3.19 Lakh users listening in, with a peak currency of more than 1.26 Lakh users.
Grow your reach in Bharat
The growing online presence of Bharat, and its comfort with making lifestyle purchases using digital shopping channels, makes it imperative for e-commerce brands to make meaningful engagements with this segment. Social platforms that keep Bharat hooked with an Indic language ecosystem and a plethora of engaging experiences offer a particularly attractive proposition for brands to reach out to this segment.
