With the changing times and trends, everything seems to be changed but some things do not. Like shopping for Diwali festivities, It has been a tradition in the Indian society from time immemorial. However, there has been a lot of changes in which people shop for Diwali.
Before 1991: Before the famous amendment by our ex-Prime Minister and the then Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, to open Indian markets for products from all over the world, by lowering the taxes on each imported commodities. The people in India used trivial ways of shopping. The entire family used to visit the nearest shopping complex or the biggest Dressing showroom in town and would buy from there. Since there were hardly any brands available, the shoppers didn’t have much choice. Due to the monopoly of the shopkeepers and brands, the entire community used to wear the same thing or the dress by the same designer. However, this changed immensely post the amendment.
Before 2009: The ways of shopping improved a bit post the turn of millennium. It was then the big multinational fashion industry knew the potential of the Indian market. There were various showrooms of innumerable brands from different corners of the world. However, most of these new and fancy names and brands were new to the Indian general public. They didn’t catch up with them as quickly as they hoped to, but nevertheless they started getting solid business from the Indian subcontinent. While, the people were happy to get new and better brands. But unfortunately, their way of shopping remained same. They went to the shop and brought the stuff that was available in the brand they preferred.
From 2009-13: It was during this time that E-commerce sites were starting to gain popularity. They were catching up with the urban population, and it was a start of “Digital India”. Customer used to spend hours on numerous shopping sites, searching for coupons and bookmarking their favorite product enlisted in numerous websites. It was the first time people started comparing products in the real time. They wasted a lot of time on various sites and most of the time they were frustrated because by the time they decided to buy the product it was either out of stock or the discount on the product was over. They again had to ponder for hours to get the best available deal on the product of their choice at a cheaper rate from the shops in the market.
Present: More and more people have started shopping online compared to before. But still online shopping is a long way to go. However, there is a change in which people compare the product they wish to buy. Instead of opening different tabs simultaneously, they refrain their efforts by visiting different price comparison websites. They are now able to view the same product that is available on different websites along with their prices and available discounts that are available on these price comparison websites. This not only ease the pressure of waiting for the particular product to come online but help buyers compare different relative products available on different websites with just one tab, courtesy: price comparison websites.
