Changing Lifestyles Influencing Indian Consumers: Conceptualizing and Indentifying Future Directions

In recent years, India has witnessed a huge transformation in the consumer lifestyle which has been influenced by the geodemographics, socio-cultural factors, psychographics, preferences, norms and behavior. The Indian consumer today wants to lead a life full of luxury and comfort. Indian middle class has provided a big boost to the consumer culture due to fast growth of the services sector per capita income of people has increased; rising disposable incomes continue to drive increased spending and to generate consumer demand for a wide range of new goods and services. The consumption pattern of a country depends on liberalization of economic policies, buying habits of the younger generation, financial independence at a young age, increase in number of nuclear families and increase in media exposure of the people. The current generation does not mind paying extra for better facilities and ambience. Another major factor that has led to increased consumerism is the growth of credit culture in India. The Indian consumer does not feel shy to purchase products on credit and pay tomorrow for what they use or buy today. The Indian consumer market has never had it better. According to a 2007 report by McKinsey & Co., India is set to grow into the fifth largest consumer market in the world by 2025. There is need to understand, formulate and successfully implement the changing concept related to consumer behavior because there are few resources and other constraints to meet the basic requirements of running business. This study focuses on significant attention of the practitioners and academics researchers which emphasized on market place ambience, conventional shopping wisdom of consumers, long term customer services, technologicallySonu Joseph & Vibhuti Singh 862 led selling processes and establishing customer centric strategies to be successful in Indian subcontinent.