Grooming, entertainment high on desi shopping list

The Indian consumer seems to have come of age. While the largest proportion of household expenses still goes for groceries (around 32%), and 13% for payment to public utilities like electricity as well as for fuel and laundry, there has been a shift in spending habits, with personal grooming and entertainment accounting for as much as 17% of household expenditure.

On entertainment alone, Mumbai and Bangalore consumers were ahead of the other metros in living life to the fullest. While the average Mumbaikar splurges 14% of his monthly spend on entertainment, Bangalore is close behind at 13%.

A ‘Wallet Study’ undertaken by IMRB International and the UK-based Henley Centre found that the emerging Indian consumer is ‘individualistic’ and enjoys spending his money on entertainment and self-indulgence. At the same time, he is prudent enough to save and spend on his family. In this respect, the study showed that on an average, the urban Indian consumer invests close to 10% of his monthly income.

Contrary to popular belief, the North clearly leads the way with investments and savings accounting for 15% of monthly expenditure, while the South and West save the least with just 8% of spending reserved for this head.

The ‘Wallet Monitor’ studied the pattern of spending in the country’s urban households and accessed 12,180 homes across 67 sample towns to collect the data. Most of the information was obtained from housewives with help from their husbands on issues like investment details.

The study finds that among the metros, Kolkata tops the charts in spends on groceries (37%), while Bangalore spends the least (20%). In terms of investment, Delhi is the highest at 21% while Chennai is the lowest at 5%. As far as expenditure on personal grooming is concerned, Hyderabad leads the pack at 10%. On the other hand, Chennai spends the highest on children (11%).

“As markets mature, consumers move beyond materialistic products and goods and actually look at money to buy enriching experiences,” said Sian Davies, CEO of the UK-based marketing consultancy, Henley Centre. “India is beginning to move from a product or feature-rich economy to an experience-rich economy,” he added.