As India prepares for Diwali, the five-day festival of lights, a new report has said that social media apps are a huge opportunity for brands to engage with consumers whose shopping behaviour has been affected by COVID-19 for most of this year.

Entitled The Essential Guide to the Indian Festive Season 2020, the report argues that the pandemic has been a watershed moment for the app ecosystem because it has altered consumer behaviour and caused online shopping to surge.

Produced by Facebook and AppsFlyer, the global analytics and attribution platform, and based on an analysis of 500 apps and 720 million installs, the report also notes that lockdown helped to improve retargeting conversions by 31% in Q3 2020 compared with the same quarter in 2019.

Given the emergence of all these new online shoppers, the report goes on to state that apps now have a unique opportunity to engage these new customers to drive more conversions or retarget those who are close to making their first online purchase, the Economic Times reported.

Not surprisingly, food and drink brands are expected to benefit from spending in the run-up to Diwali and beyond, but Facebook also set key recommendations for all brands. These include:

• Strengthening new user acquisition this festive season and beyond – optimise media and focus on Lifetime Value (LTV) to drive acquisition efforts.

• Retargeting aggressively – grow the user base by preventing uninstalls and encouraging ‘window shopping’.

• Plan ahead for the festive season and sustain advertising beyond Diwali, including updating catalogues and planning campaign budgets in advance.

Commenting on the findings, Sanjay Trisal, country manager of AppsFlyer India, said: “The markets have fundamentally shifted from offline to online as a majority of consumers are trying to avoid public places.

“This is further going to spike during the festive season with people trying to break the monotony of being confined to their homes. Our data shows that there is a strong intent from consumers to use, buy, and pay for goods and services this festive season, and apps are now the de-facto platforms where consumers spend their time and make purchases.

“The right mix of user acquisition and retargeting will be the key to success for app marketers this festive season and beyond.”

Sourced from AppsFlyer, Facebook, Economic Times