Insights for strategic management: Women driving luxury market in India

According to data gathered by ASSOCHAM, there is about 1,200 ultra-affluent women in India with a net worth of $100billion. These women have immense purchasing power and they are a reflection of the growing influence of female consumers in the Indian market. The overall worth of India’s luxury market is $9billion. This is an important development for strategic managers of luxury brands as they’d need to focus more on female consumers in their new marketing campaigns. This would be a shift from the traditional trend in which the majority of communications for luxury brands targeted male consumers.

The women in India are enjoying rising income levels and their role in the decision making processes in families is changing. Traditionally, the womenfolk would constitute the bulk of influencers in family purchase decision making. But this has changed as women become the main decision makers. This change has been driven decisively by two main factors: education/enlightenment and increased inclusiveness in economic opportunities. India as a society has been part of the global movement towards ensuring that there is gender equity in employment and provision of economic opportunities.

One of the areas in which the growing influence of women is experienced is the e-commerce market. Women spend more time online in contemporary India and tend to shop extensively in search of the best deals in the market. For the affluent women, the cost or price is not a major issue and all they need to do is be convinced that they have found the best product they could find. The top five categories of products browsed by female luxury consumers in India include apparel, jewellery, watches, personal care products and electronics. Understanding these online shopping trends ought to inform strategic managers on how to target the web users with content that is likely to interest them.

The changing trend in the market has also led to luxury brands dedicating women’s stores for purposes of building lasting relationships with them. Having women’s stores is a strategy that ensures that a gendered approach is taken to stocking and marketing the products. The branding messages can be shaped to bring out issues and emotions that are important to these women; hence help in building trust and boosting customer loyalty. The gendered approach also helps to ensure that all innovations are relevant and likely to impress the targeted customers.

The trend of women in India becoming more potent customers is largely replicated in other emerging markets. China is one of these markets with the one-child policy being seen to be the main contributor of the trend. Families with only one child would do their best to empower them to secure the best education and run businesses irrespective of their gender. This has been responsible for women in China becoming stronger economically. Other factors such as international gender equity campaigns are known to have taken root globally. This means that the improved performance of women in the economic landscape is a trend that goes beyond India.