Indian consumer durable industry to hit $36bn by 2023

New Delhi, July 9 (IANS) The consumer durables industry in India will reach $36 billion by 2023 and a whopping $23 billion sales would be digitally influenced, a new Google-Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report said on Tuesday.

The report defines a sale as a "digitally influenced sale" if the buyer uses Internet during any stage of purchase cycle.

Currently, 28 per cent of consumer durable sales is digitally influenced and this is estimated to reach 63 per cent of total sales -- amounting to $23 billion by 2023 -- and nearly $10 billion of this will be online sale, said the report titled "Digital Powers Consumer Durables: A $23 billion Opportunity by 2023".

"Businesses need to create an always-on digital strategy and create personalised interventions to tap different consumer demographics across all markets to achieve their business goals," said Vikas Agnihotri, Country Director -- Sales, Google India.

Approximately 80 per cent of digitally-influenced consumers today decide their brand after researching online, in a short window of 2-3 weeks and companies will need to win these consumers to stay relevant, the findings showed.

Digital is increasingly playing an important role in consumers' decision to buy a product and number of digitally influenced consumers have doubled over last four years.

Digitally-influenced consumers have increased five times in tier 2 and tier 3 cities and digitally influenced women consumers have increased 10 times over last four years.

"Nearly $18 billion of consumer durable sales will reside with digitally influenced consumers who are undecided on their brands in 2023. Companies will have a short 2-3 week window to influence them and ability to timely & efficiently influence them will determine the winners of the future," explained Nimisha Jain, Managing Director and Partner, The Boston Consulting Group.

The findings were based on survey of 6,800 consumer durable buyers and discussions conducted by Kantar IMRB for the study.

Google Search, social media, blogs and online videos are the key sources for online research for the consumers.

The report said nearly 2 out of 3 digitally-influenced consumers rate online reviews as a significant influencer in their purchase decisions.

The report further stated that during the purchase phase, low price, convenience and choice of multiple payment options are some of the largest drivers of online conversions.

However, an absence of in-person guidance and lack of "touch and feel" are the biggest barriers.