Bangalore: AppsFlyer announced the launch of the Indian Festive Season 2021 Report to equip app marketers with insights and recommendations to plan their strategy ahead of the festive season. This report, in collaboration with Facebook, is based on Diwali 2020 and early trends from Q1 and Q2 of 2021 in the Food and Drinks, and Shopping categories. Despite app activities slowing down in these categories owing to the second wave of the pandemic, it will see a major recovery as consumers await the festive shopping season with bated breath. Taking a cue from last year’s trends, marketers should start early in 2021 – three-four weeks before Diwali to make the most of the upcoming festive season.
Sanjay Trisal, General Manager of INSEA/ANZ, AppsFlyer, “The report provides marketers with intelligent insights to achieve a great head start for the festive shopping season. Last year’s festive shopping trends show that consumers have majorly pivoted towards online platforms, which will achieve greater magnitude as we head into the festive season in 2021. In the Food & Drinks category, there was an IAP surge of 3.75x in Q2 2021 compared to Q2 2020, and remarketing offered a massive boost of over 100% to the average app’s 30-day retention rate, registering more than twice the number of retained users in 2020.”
In 2020, pre-Diwali (four weeks prior to the festival) provided marketers with a huge boost as it was welcomed by shoppers with great enthusiasm. As per Facebook, 16% start shopping 6-8 weeks before Diwali. The positive outlook towards festive online purchases contributed to the bulk of Shopping apps’ organic and non-organic installs (NOI). However, the graph saw a sharp decline during the actual festival days as people were engaged in celebrations. As the festive mood waned and consumers hopped on to fully harness post-holiday offers, Shopping apps hit another peak (2 weeks after Diwali), and NOIs increased for a brief period of 2 weeks following Diwali. The season also marked a food fiesta in Indian households where they pre-ordered their favorite treats and remarketing helped boost this by over 100% to the average app’s 30-day retention rate.
The pandemic has made consumers more comfortable spending on online services, and this trend will continue during the festive season. There was a heavy drop in both organic and NOIs between March and May stemming from the pandemic’s second wave, which recovered since June. Furthermore, Q2 2021 was more promising than Q2 2020 as NOIs spiked by 112.5% for Shopping apps.
Looking ahead, owing to the influx of new mobile users, Diwali 2021 will be an interesting opportunity for app marketers to attract and retain them as customers. Encouraging brand recall through branded campaigns and driving retention through remarketing will be the key focus areas for marketers. With the latest privacy updates, owned media and deep linking will be crucial for iOS apps whereas remarketing will continue to be the proven strategy for android apps. Planning the right mix of owned and paid media is essential to achieve gains for each category during the festive season. Most migrant populations will be moving to tier II and III cities for the holidays and content in their local language will drive engagement.
Nitin Chopra, Industry Head – eCommerce & Retail at Facebook, said, “With increased digital influence and improved consumer sentiment this year, businesses have an opportunity to unlock growth by enabling digital discovery; and Facebook is the home for personalized discovery. The pool of about 200 million Indians at various stages of commerce adoption has to be primed across the digital funnel differently this season.
Brands have to start by building trust and awareness before consideration and subsequently push consumers down the funnel to buy from them with the least possible friction. While the mega sales moments help drive new shopper acquisition, it’s important to sustain remarketing efforts post the peak events to improve the LTV.”
Key findings from the report:
- 92.2% was Android’s market share for India during festive season 2020
- 3.75x rise in & Drink IAP in Q2 2021 compared to Q2 2020
- 72% increase in organic installs from February 2021 to June 2021
- 65% rise in the share of Paying users from January 2021 to April 2021
- 1.43x increase in the number of users buying staples online as compared to pre-COVID
The pandemic has been a blessing in disguise for online Shopping apps owing to their ability to provide products safely at home. With the positive shift in consumers’ mindset, the Diwali season presents the perfect opportunity for marketers to plan their 2021 festive campaign in the highly competitive food and drinks, and shopping categories.
The Indian Festive Season 2021 Report is available here.
