Capterra in its recent survey, which involved 500 Indian online shoppers, aimed to determine whether shoppers find technology helpful for conducting online searches and exploring their search behaviours.
The survey highlights a notable trend: There is a growing interest among online shoppers in AI chatbots, QR codes, and the impact of social media advertisements.
AI Chatbots: A Preferred Tool for Shoppers
Among the respondents, 51% expressed interest in using AI chatbots and QR codes for their online shopping needs. Furthermore, 42% of respondents are driven by AI-based recommendations, 41% prefer voice recognition, and 39% favour AR or VR for online shopping. When asked about their use of AI-enabled chatbots, 72% of respondents reported using them to search for products online and expressed a desire to continue doing so in the future.
Conversely, 18% had never used an AI chatbot, and 8% had used them but did not plan to use them again.
Social Media Ads Drive Purchases and Engagement
The survey found that a remarkable 70% of respondents had purchased one or more products after seeing a social media ad in the past year. Additionally, 69% of respondents looked up information about a product after seeing a social media ad, and 65% followed a brand, indicating that social media ads generate significant engagement even if they don’t always result in immediate purchases.
Within the last 12 months, 65% of individuals began following a brand because of social media advertisements. A significant majority (73%) of surveyed shoppers expressed that they don’t mind seeing ads if they are relevant to their interests. Interestingly, 53% of respondents indicated they find ads for products they haven’t previously shown interest in acceptable.
Commenting on the survey, Sukanya Awasthi, the analyst of the study, said: “From our data, it is clear that there is a significant openness among Indian consumers towards integrating technology into their shopping experience. They are rapidly adopting AR/VR and voice recognition in order to get a hands-free, immersive, and hyper-personalised shopping experience. As such, businesses would have to constantly adapt to these shifting consumer preferences and evolve their product offerings with time in order to thrive in a competitive market like India.”
