9 in 10 festive shoppers research, 70% buy on impulse
Google-Ipsos study shows Indian festive shoppers do deep research yet still make 70% of purchases spontaneously. Here's what marketers should do.
A new Google-commissioned Ipsos study captures a familiar festive contradiction: Indian shoppers are both planners and impulsive buyers. Nine in ten consumers research products before buying, yet 70 per cent of festive purchases are decided on the spot.
The Google-Ipsos Shopping Moments Study, covering Indian consumers aged 18 and above who shopped during Navratri or Diwali, found a long, multi-touchpoint journey behind most decisions. Shoppers averaged more than eight online searches and almost eight videos, and they used visual tools like Google Lens (53 per cent) and creator inspiration (73 per cent) along the way.
Why the contradiction is the strategy
The best way to read this is through Kahneman’s System 1 and System 2. Research is System 2: slow, deliberate, comparative. Impulse is System 1: fast, visual, triggered by promotions and festive urgency. Indian festive shopping runs both systems almost simultaneously.
Google and YouTube influenced 54 per cent of unplanned purchases. The triggers? Promotions, festive urgency and visual product discovery. In other words, shoppers do not move cleanly from think to buy; they switch modes.
AI is making shoppers search more, not less
More than half of festive shoppers said AI helped them make a purchase decision, with chatbot users averaging 7.5 sessions. Far from replacing search, chatbots seem to feed it: 94 per cent of chatbot users also used Google Search, and their search usage was 1.3 times higher than non-chatbot users.
This suggests an insight for brand managers: AI-assisted shopping is a research accelerant, not a shortcut that skips evaluation. Shoppers use a chatbot to narrow options, then search to verify.
The social-to-search loop is equally important. Seven in ten shoppers who see a brand or product on social media go to Google Search to dig deeper. That means a social impression is often not the end of the journey, but the start of a verification trip.
What to do this festive season
- Make post-discovery search easy: consistent product names and comparison-ready pages.
- Invest in creator and visual discovery: 73 per cent use creators; 53 per cent use visual tools.
- Build product detail pages that AI chatbots can read and cite.
- Use festive urgency as a trigger, but keep proof and comparisons one search away.
Think of the funnel as a loop rather than a line. A shopper may spot a creator video, search for a comparison, ask a chatbot for alternatives, then buy on a festive price trigger. If the brand disappears at any of those steps, the impulse never gets a chance to convert.
Source: ETRetail.com
