Overview

This large-scale, India-wide consumer study focused on understanding parenting attitudes, digital shopping behaviour, and cross-category product consumption among parents of children aged 0–12 years. The objective was to generate deep parenting insights into how Indian parents make decisions across major kids’ product categories and to support data-driven strategies for brands operating in one of the world’s fastest-growing child-focused consumer markets.

The research explored:

• How parents evaluate and purchase kids’ products

• Multi-category buying behaviour and barriers

• Online vs. offline shopping trends

• Key product attributes influencing brand choice

• Trust drivers, spending patterns, and cross-category consumption

• Behaviour across 7 major kids’ categories: Baby care, Feeding gear, Baby gear, Toys, School supplies, Mobility & Sports, and Health & Nutrition

This comprehensive study provided actionable insights for brands seeking to understand the evolving needs, habits, and modern family consumption patterns.

Business Challenge

The kids’ products market in India is expanding rapidly, driven by evolving family structures, rising disposable incomes, and increased exposure to digital-first behaviour among modern parents. For brands, however, this growth comes with challenges.

Key complexities included:

• Diverse consumer behaviour across Metro, Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 cities

• Wide variation in needs across child age groups from 0 to 12 years

• Highly fragmented purchase journeys spanning both online and offline ecosystems

• Category-specific nuances requiring granular behavioural insights

• The need for reliable, fraud-free data from verified parents actively shopping for kids’ products

To build effective product, marketing, and retail strategies, the client required high-quality, representative, and scalable data that could capture emerging trends in Indian parenting market across India’s varied socio-economic and cultural landscape.

Executing a study of this depth and scale demanded:

• Strong sampling precision

• Robust quality controls

• Real-time quota balancing

• Accurate representation across household incomes, NCCS groups, family types and household dynamics shaping kid purchases

Our Approach

The study was executed to ensure speed, precision, and data quality.

Key components of the research approach included:

1. Advanced Sampling & Profiling

• Targeted parents aged 22–50 years with at least one child aged 0–12 years

• Inclusion of all genders and varied family structures

• Respondents screened for active purchase activity in any kids’ category in the past 3 months

• Representation from Metro, Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 cities

• Balanced sampling across NCCS groups, income brackets, and 4 child age cohorts (0–2, 2–5, 5–9, 9–12)

2. Structured Questionnaire Design

• Consumption mapping across 7 major product categories

• Automated routing based on the age of the youngest child and category purchase history

• Category-specific deep-dive modules

• Representation checks for marital status, confirmed parenthood, and category incidence

3. High-Reliability Data Collection

• Real-time quota tracking and completion balancing

• Advanced fraud prevention:

  • Dedupe systems

  • Bot detection

  • Logic consistency checks

• Data collected from 25+ cities and 150+ pin codes

4. Seamless Execution at Scale

• 6,000 verified parents participated

• One of the largest behaviour-tracking studies decoding consumer journey for kids’ product buyers

• Automated “least-fill” allocation ensured balanced category insights

• Fast turnaround leveraging XGP’s streamlined fieldwork infrastructure

Results

The project delivered a comprehensive and reliable view of parenting behaviour and kids’ product consumption in India, offering category-level insights at unprecedented depth and scale.

Key outcomes included:

• A complete behavioural map of parents across all major kids’ categories

• Structured insights on family purchase pathways, motivators, barriers, and parental decision-making patterns in India

• Rich insights into online vs. offline shopper pathways

• Identification of product attributes that most strongly influence brand choice

• Actionable data on spending landscape for Indian families, and cross-category consumption

• Robust market segmentation of parents across different child age cohorts and cross-city variation in childcare shopping

The study equipped the client with a strategic foundation to:

• Build sharper product and brand positioning

• Tailor communication to distinct parent segments

• Refine channel strategies for both e-commerce and traditional retail

• Strengthen innovation pipelines based on unmet needs

With its scale, quality, and operational excellence, this project reinforces Xcel Global Panel’s leadership in delivering complex, high-volume, India-focused consumer research.

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