Sep 2, 2024
By: Prerna Tyagi
The investment banking and financial services firm Jefferies released a report in June this year, giving insights into the Indian wedding market. The report values the market at a whopping ₹10 lakh crore. Let's dive into some of the key insights:
The average expenditure on a wedding at roughly $15,000, is a multiple of household income. Interestingly, an average Indian couple spends 2x on weddings vs education (pre-primary to graduation), in sharp contrast to countries, such as the U.S., where the spend is less than half of what is spent on education.
India sees 80 lakh to 1 crore weddings annually, compared to 70-80 lakh in China and 20-25 lakh in the U.S. However, the Indian wedding industry is nearly double the size of its US counterpart ($70 billion), but smaller than China’s $170 billion market.
Owing to their size and scale, weddings are a key growth driver for several categories in India, such as jewellery, apparel, catering, stay and travel, etc. For instance, more than half of the jewellery industry’s revenue comes from bridal jewellery, while 10% of all apparel spending is driven by wedding and celebration wear.
Jefferies noted that wedding planning generally begins 6-12 months in advance, and the most elaborate wedding celebrations have seen as many as 50,000 guests. This industry also indirectly fuels sectors, such as automobiles, consumer electronics, paints etc.
Bridal lattires in the luxury segment include heavy intricate work and even weigh way over 10 kg in some cases! Italian Luxury Brand Bvlgari (part of the LVMH Group) launched its first India-only jewellery piece, Mangalsutra, in 2021, to cater to the Indian market.
The wedding industry has also begun to showcase India's heritage locations as destinations for non-Indian couples. Popular destinations for weddings in India continue to be Goa, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and the Andamans, with new locations emerging to cater to the opportunity.
Matchmaking as an industry is predominantly unique to Asian countries. The report cited a 2018 survey that showed over 90 percent of marriages in India were arranged by parents, and this has remained consistent across decades and education levels.