The Denave survey also pointed out that Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore together, account for 70 per cent smart speaker sales in India
pic credits – FlickrA recent survey conducted by the sales tech organisation Denave has said that people in 25 to 30 age group are the top adopters of smart speakers in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The survey findings also showed that more men (75 per cent) adopt smart speakers in comparison to women(25 per cent).
The survey read, “Briefly, while the Indian Smart Speaker market may still be in a nascent stage, the growth rate and demographic dividend presents immense market opportunities. India remains a hot market for the product category as the geo-specific customisations become more pronounced and usage patterns are taken into consideration for planning the marketing and sales strategy.”
Snehashish Bhattacharjee, Global CEO, Denave said, “Technology is impacting people in every sphere of their lives, including the home front. With IoT charting exponential growth trajectory and ever-increasing focus on technology integration, cross-device compatibility and interoperability, the home automation market is poised to grow very fast. Marketeers need to consider the dynamic eco-system and customer sentiments while strategising their go-to-market approach in this category.”
Factors leading to the growth of smart speaker segment
The survey found out that unlike the global market scenario, where the smart speaker usage has evolved along with the consumer, Indian buyers’ usage of the smart device is driven primarily by lifestyle and hobby related tasks.
Lifestyle upgrades also featured as one of the underlying reasons for majority of the purchases made. Augmented penetration of smart phones and smart devices is also a reason behind the growth in the smart speaker segment in India.
Advancements in IoT and subsequent tech integration are also playing a major role in the growth. Additionally, more houses adopting to the smart homes tag is also helping the sales figures of smart speakers.
Denave survey read, “In due course of time, the growing consumption of smart speakers in India may become a key driver for propelling the trend of connected and interactive homes experience.”
Factors impacting the adoption of smart speakers
Lack of geo-specific content ecosystem customisation is one of the prime reasons hindering the growth and adoption of smart speakers in the country. It is followed by insufficient support for specific language and voice accents used in India. As a matter of fact, India is home to more than 1000 languages!
The affordability factor also plays a huge role in impacting the growth and adoption of these in the country. Though the retail costs are reducing, the revised ones may still be priced expensively to make a generic household entree.
Smartphones make for a reason, that is both encouraging as well as hindering the adoption for smart speakers in the country. The Denave survey said that many people find their smartphones to have sufficient functionalities, and accordingly, think that they do not need smart speakers. Privacy invasion threat also points out that many users do not feel secure about their data when using smart speakers.
Large format stores contribute 61 per cent of total product sale
Highlighting the role large format stores are playing in sales of smart speakers, the survey findings pointed out that large format stores contributed 61 per cent of total smart speaker sales. It is to be noted here that large format stores are also known as modern trade stores in India.
Some of the prominent examples of these include the likes of Croma, Vijay Sales, Sargam, Reliance stores and Great Eastern Retail. However, it is not sure whether these stores were covered under the survey or not.
The survey was conducted across 18 states, 36 cities, 400+ stores and 20,000+ in-store purchases made between April to October 2018 period. It focused on understanding the smart speaker market in India by studying market sentiments, demographic impact and overall adoption trends.
Snehashish continued, “Denave, being on the forefront of sales enabling, has a window to unique sales insights and is equipped to create insight-driven sales methodologies for market players across industries and product segment. This report is an attempt in this direction.”
