Advances in Consumer Research
Issue 4 : 316-321
Original Article
Digital Influence and Traditional Buying Behaviour in Rural India’s FMCG Market: A Decadal Qualitative Analysis of Secondary Evidence
 ,
1
Research Scholar, School of Commerce and Management Studies, Sandip University, Madhubani, Bihar.
2
Assistant Professor, School of Commerce and Management Studies, Sandip University, Madhubani, Bihar.
Abstract

This paper discusses the digital impact and traditional buying behavior that are co-determinant of rural FMCG consumption in India in the past ten years. The qualitative secondary-data design is used in the study and synthesizes various sources, which are chosen based on academic literature, industry reports, and institutional publications, to explore the changing consumer behavior in rural markets. It is found that the increased awareness of the product and information search by the rural consumers have been highly influenced by increasing smartphone penetration, access to internet and exposure of the online promotions. Nevertheless, conventional purchasing behavior is still very strong, and the purchase decisions still rely on the local stores, interpersonal trust, family and community pressure, prices, and preference to small-pack products. The paper also finds the increased significance of hybrid consumer behavior whereby rural consumers use digital channels to gain awareness and make an evaluation but use offline retail channels to verify and finalize purchase. It means that the rural FMCG markets are not moving directly towards the digital consumption but are becoming hybrid marketplaces where new digital forces are at work but where the proven local buying systems are coexisting with them. The article can add to the literature by providing the synthesized insight into the rural FMCG behavior in India and has the practical implications on companies that are willing to implement a digital reach with trust-based and localized retail approaches

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