Social videos, influencers to drive festive season shopping

This festive season shopping will be driven by social video, influencers, impactful experiences and conversation-based marketing. Social media platform Facebook India has released its Festive Marketing Guide for 2021 stating that social video, influencers, impactful experiences, and conversation-based marketing are the key trends that will drive brand discovery and festive shopping this year.

The highlight of the guide is that social media is a leading channel for promoting brand discovery and purchases during the festive season. An online survey commissioned by Facebook and completed by GfK revealed that 96 percent of surveyed people search for brands and products online. Of those who use the Facebook platform weekly, 83% of those searching for new brands and products online usually do their searches on the Facebook platform. The same study showed that 96 percent of online shoppers who used the Facebook platform weekly ended up buying only the fashion, beauty, furniture or consumer electronic products they searched for on the platform.

Arun Srinivas, Director, Global Business Group, Facebook India, said this year the intent to spend on festive is high and many businesses on our platform have already achieved strong results from their festive campaigns in early August. Digital has emerged as the biggest influencer of festive shopping decisions right now and with over 400 million Indians on Facebook, we are instrumental in finding and delivering truly incremental business results. This is an opportunity for businesses small and large to leverage digital to enable person-centered discovery through video content, creators, impactful experiences and conversation-based marketing.

Facebook’s Festive Marketing Guide also outlines the structural trend towards online shopping, with 1.2 times more people adopting online shopping in April 2021 than before the pandemic. The guide, citing independent research from August 2021, shows that the Diwali spending index for 2021 is higher than last time indicating an intent to spend more.