‘Essential’ steady consumptions majorly reflected in southern regions, overall household spending dipped by 3% dip from last month

• Over 10563 people surveyed 71% is from rural India while 29% is from urban India
• Overall household spending has increased for 59%, majorly in Northern regions, 3% dip from last month
• Highest ‘steady’ spends (33%) in essentials and lowest ‘increased’ spends(14%) in non-essential spends in the last 5 months
• Surge in steady spends in health-related items for 40% families, drop by 2% from last month
• Increased media consumption for a majority of 25% of families, Net Score improves from -4 to +1
• Mobility more or same for 91% families, going out the same for short vacations, malls, restaurants etc
• Combined 58% engage with Digital apps / Websites + Social Media and 53% engage with television for news/latest updates and 37% with news paper
• 52% believe that the economy might get affected by the new variant- Omicron
• Majority, 82% believes efforts should be made to provide vaccine booster dose to people. The Government recently announced a phase wise booster dose plan.
• WhatsApp voted as the most frequented app (view of 31%), followed by Facebook (26%) and YouTube (21%)
• 71% believes that 2022 will be much better than 2021

Mumbai :  Axis My India, a leading consumer data intelligence company, released its latest findings of the India Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI), a monthly analysis of consumer perception on a wide range of issues. The month of December reveals a slight dip in increased consumption or surge in steady consumption across the 5 relevant sub-indices. Overall household spending has dipped by 3% in comparison to last month. In terms of essential items, spends remain the ‘same’ for 33% of the families – depicting the highest in the last 5 months. Lowest ‘increased’ spends in the last five months is recorded in non-essential & discretionary products like AC, Car, Refrigerator etc at 14%. Similar consumption in health related items has dropped by 2% and in mobility has surged by 3%.

The January net CSI score, calculated by percentage increase minus percentage decrease in sentiment, was up to +10, from +8 last month

The sentiment analysis delves into 5 relevant sub-indices – Overall household spending, spending on essential and non-essential items, spending on healthcare, media consumption habits & mobility trends.

This month, Axis My India’s Sentiment Index also probed deeper to understand consumer preferences in terms of news consumption and frequently used digital applications. Finally, the January survey also revealed consumers thoughts on 2022.

The surveys were carried out via Computer Aided Telephonic Interviews with a sample size of 10563 people across 36 states. 71% belonged from Rural India while 29% belonged from urban counterparts. In addition, 64% of the respondents were male while 36% of the respondents were female

Commenting on the December report, Pradeep Gupta, CMD, Axis My India, said, “While the new year brought along hope and optimism for a better 2022, consumers purse strings suggest otherwise. The lowest dip in non-essential spending is a proof that consumers are curling back to apprehensions triggered by the new variant of the virus and also hoping for a booster dose, something which has recently been announced by the Government. Moreover, the higher preference of web for seeking news only reflect the gradual change in media consumption behaviour owing to consistent lockdown experienced by consumers in the last two years. In addition, the inclination towards WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube reflects an evolved and unconscious mode of conversing, converging or consuming dialogue/information/media. “

Key findings:

• Overall household spending has increased for 59% of families which reflects a 3% decrease from the last month. While this increase is majorly reflected in the Northern part of India, the net score is at +50, reflecting the dip in net score by 1 percentage point for 3rd consecutive month
• Spends on essentials like personal care & household items has increased for 47% of the families showcasing a surge in the Northern part of India. Spends however remain the same for 33% of the families (the highest in the last 5 months). The net score which was +27 last month comes down to +26 this month.
• Spends on non-essential & discretionary products like AC, Car, Refrigerator has increased for 14% of families, indicating the lowest percentage in the last 5 months. Expenditure nevertheless remains the same for 78% of the families indicating the sentiment of people living in Southern part of India. The net score is stagnant at +6 as last month.
• Consumption on health-related items more or less remains the same for 43% of the families, while a surge is witnessed among 40%. In comparison to last month, while the ‘increase’ in consumption represents an overall dip by 2%, the ‘same’ consumption reflects an overall surge by 2%. The health score which has a negative connotation i.e., the lesser the spends on health items the better the sentiments, has a net score value of -23, which was at -25 previous month.
• Consumption of media has increased for 25% of the families reflecting an increase of 3% from the last month and the highest in the last three months. This surge is reflected among 18-25 YO in Eastern part of India. Consumption remains the same for a majority of 51% families. The overall, the Net score of this month is at +1 as compared to -4 for the previous month.
• 85% families said that they are going out the same for short vacations, mall and restaurants as compared to 81% of families last month. Only 6% of families recorded increase in outgoing activities while 9% reported reduced mobility. The overall mobility score which was at -5 last month is at -3.

On topics of current national interest:

• Axis My India further assessed consumer’s sentiment on their information/news seeking habits. A majority of 53% said that they prefer engaging with television for news/latest updates. These reflect the view of 36-50 YO. A secondary favourite seems to be Newspapers representing the view of 37%, showcasing the choice of 35-50 YO from Western part of India. However, interestingly, a combined 62% of 18-35 YO seems to prefer Digital apps / Websites + Social Media as their number one choice for news consumption. This unravels a potential trend of looking at television and digital mediums as mediums of seeking information along with entertainment.
• Gauging concern regarding the new variant of the virus, 52% believe that the opening up of the economy will get affected by Omicron, while 23% (each) is unsure of its impact on the economy or is of the view that the economy will remain unaffected. In addition, a majority of 82% believes that with regards to the upcoming virus variant, vaccine booster dose should be given to the countrymen instead of exporting vaccines to other countries.
• Exploring consumer’s app preference, Axis My India December survey delved deeper to understand most frequented interfaces. The findings revealed that WhatsApp was the most used app (view of majority, 31%), followed by Facebook (view of 26%) and YouTube (View of 21%). In addition, when consumers were asked to share their preference in terms of Top 1, Top 2 and Top 3 apps choices, it was learnt that ‘Whatsapp (42%) is the number ‘one’ choice while Facebook (34%) and YouTube (27%) denotes the choice of top ‘three’ apps. Moreover YouTube (25%), Facebook(17%) and Instagram (17%) reflect the top ‘three’ choices of consumers in terms of most frequently used applications
• Finally, Axis My India was delighted to report that a massive majority of 71% strongly believes that 2022 will be much better than 2021 on an all-encompassing basis.