With the changing retail landscape in the country, has come a possible rewriting of stereotypes … Insight Instore scratched the surface of these new behavioural traits with a Men’s Apparel Survey.

Contrary to popular stereotypes, men today seem to enjoy shopping for clothes! 75% as per our survey. In fact 47% enjoyed shopping for clothes more than for appliances! ‘Ubersexual’ did someone say?

For one, this could very well be due to the relative ease in shopping now … with showrooms that have parking, a wide range of options under one roof and staff that are better trained than before the advent of modern retail.

This ‘pleasure’ in shopping seems to reflect in the number of stores visited – Nearly 60% of shoppers visit 2-3 stores on an average for each shopping trip. This also reflected in terms of time spent in stores as well – a fourth of shoppers spent more than an hour during each shopping trip, although this is split between each store visited. The winds of change seems to be clearly blowing, although the most significant chunk of shoppers, 44%, still spend between 15-30 minutes only. Clearly, the cowboy mentality is not dying in a hurry!

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• Rural India contributes to 72% of the population and ½ the country’s GDP
• 63% of India’s population will continue to live in the rural areas even in 2025 according to a McKinsey report
• Rural areas are growing at a robust rate of 25%
• While the per capita income is lower than urban areas, the customer base is thrice that of urban areas
• The FMCG sector in rural areas is expected to grow by 40% as against 25% in urban areas in the coming quarters.
• Shampoos have reached < 40% of rural households as compared to > 70% of urban households.
• Refrigerators have penetrated into < 5% of rural households as compared to over 35% of urban.

These numbers and more have been telling the story of many marketing opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid.

But along with purchasing power has come about a marked change in the shopping sensibilities of the rural community. This is also an indirect consequence of better connectivity to urban through transport and a marked increase in rural literacy and education levels. The rural shopper is getting smarter and cannot be taken for granted anymore! But how much are marketers investing in understanding the rural shopper?

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