Wedding industry to make a comeback in 2022: WedMeGood
Premium- 2021 saw some fundamental ways in which weddings changed in India, with only 60% wanting to plan large weddings with over 200 guests
Covid-led disruptions notwithstanding, there was not a significant drop in spending on wedding apparel, beauty and jewellery, and most people went ahead with their plans to get married despite the third wave, said a survey conducted by a portal listing wedding services.
WedMeGood conducted a survey of 3,000 users over a period of three months on how the scale, size and preferences of weddings changed. 83% of its users said they went ahead with their original wedding dates regardless of the pandemic. The company covered weddings between January 2021 and January 2022.
While only 6-7% of users said they spent less on wedding wear and jewellery, 9-10% said they reduced spends on photography and makeup. Little surprise that India's gold consumption is expected to rise further in 2022 after jumping 79% last year owing to a huge pent-up demand and general improvement in buyer sentiment, said the World Gold Council (WGC).
Yet 80% of vendors the company spoke to said at least 30% of their business had been affected. New priorities also reshaped weddings like outdoor venues which were in higher demand post covid. About 25-30% people chose outdoor venues to mark their celebrations to follow higher standards of safety.
The survey was conducted by polling both users as well as vendors listed on the platform, the company said. Mehak Sagar, co-founder of the platform said 2021 saw some fundamental ways in which weddings changed in India. Perhaps the biggest indication of that was that only 60% of its users wanted to plan large weddings with over 200 guests.
"We are continuing to see that guest counts are shrinking, even without covid-curbs, people are preferring smaller weddings of 100-200 people. We are also seeing a difference in the way covid impacted different parts of the industry differently. While digital adoption rose, we also saw service providers like decorators and venues lose out as the events scaled down," she told Mint.
She added that 2022 is likely to be seen as the year in which the industry will make a comeback -- both because of easing travel norms for destination weddings and also as covid becomes a way of life.
While there are no recent figures, India's largely unorganised wedding market was estimated to be ₹3681 billion in 2016, as per a KPMG report on Market Study of Online Matrimony and Marriage Services in India.
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The year 2021 was eventful for the wedding industry which scaled down to adjust to the new normal. Close to 16.71% of users who responded to the survey said that while planning their wedding the most important aspect was booking the venue. 16.59% said catering services was critical even though there was a decrease in spending in these two categories as weddings scaled down. Yet the two categories remained the focal points even for smaller, more intimate weddings.
Photography remained important as did safety, makeup and unique guest experiences.
Traditional ways of weddings have also changed, the survey said. Invitations saw a huge digital jump post covid. Couples became more creative with their invitations. While 31.90% of their users sent out only e-invites for their wedding, 59.05% sent out both traditional and e-invites.
The pandemic has also been a huge disruptor for those who operated only offline earlier. Except for venues that were mostly discovered offline, most other services were booked online using virtual meetings. A majority, or 54.25% users booked services after doing virtual calls.
Saaj Weddings' founder Sanjay Gupta from Jaipur said there has been a big change in the way he does business now. He is dealing with many more couples planning their own weddings rather than their parents. "There is much more digital awareness. A lot of work gets done online. Also, this generation understands why certain services cost more than others and so we don't have to keep justifying our costs," he said.
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