'Tis the season to splurge, but rise in prices a dampener

BENGALURU: This festive season, a majority of households (around 50 per cent) of Bengaluru is opening up purse strings, but is budget-conscious with prices of petrol, diesel and essential commodities cutting into the wallet. A survey, ‘Mood of the Consumer’, done by online platform LocalCircles, released on Sunday across 10 cities, claims to have seen a huge improvement in consumer sentiment.

According to the survey, the percentage of households planning to spend this season jumped from 30 per cent in May 2021 to 60 per cent in September 2021, as Covid-19 cases drastically reduced and economic certainty improved.

The survey showed that smartphones, consumer electronics, white goods and appliances, home renovation and devices upgrade are some of the big-ticket purchases in the top 10 cities. The survey focuses on shopping criteria for Bengaluru households, mode of shopping and categories of products.

The study received over 1,95,000 responses from 61,000 households from Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Gurugram and Noida. “In the past 30 days, households from 10 cities have been sharing concerns on rising prices of fuel and essentials, and their focus on budget when shopping in this festive season on various online communities...,” LocalCircles founder Sachin Taparia told TNIE.

One in two households in Bengaluru said top shopping criteria is budget, and high prices of petrol, diesel and essentials. “12 per cent of Bengaluru households said ‘convenience’ will be the top criteria, 50 per cent said ‘budget/value’, 26 per cent said ‘safety’, 6 per cent said ‘selection or range’ while 6 per cent couldn’t say,” said the report. 

BENGALURU SPEND

Percent of households   

80 % Smartphones, consumer electronics, white goods and appliances 

38% Home renovation 

74% Beauty and apparel 

9% Cosmetics 

33% Shoes, accessories 

* Overlap in categories