Path to Purchase Survey in India: A Question Flow You Can Copy
How to design a path to purchase survey in India: trigger, planning level, channel, in-store or in-app levers and switching, with a worked question flow.
In shortA path to purchase survey reconstructs one recent purchase step by step: what triggered it, how much was planned, which channel was used, what changed the choice at the shelf or on the app, and whether the shopper switched brands. Ask about the last purchase, not general habits, and use carry-forward routing so each answer feeds the next. Hercules Works can build this flow; you design the sequence.
Contents
- Study One Purchase, Not Shopping in General
- The Five Measures of a Path to Purchase Study
- A Worked Question Flow (Illustrative)
- How to Read Planning Level and Levers
- India Notes: Kirana, Modern Trade and Quick Commerce
- What an Online Panel Cannot See
- Running This Study on Hercules
- Frequently asked questions
- Related guides
Study One Purchase, Not Shopping in General
Ask people how they usually shop and you get a tidy story. Ask about the last purchase and you get what happened: the trigger, the shortcut, the last-minute swap. A path to purchase survey is built on the second kind of question.
This guide gives you the five measures the study needs, a twelve-step question flow with the routing for each step, India notes on channels, and a short feasibility check on what an online panel can and cannot see. For the wider study family, see market research study types.
The Five Measures of a Path to Purchase Study
Each measure answers one decision your client will make. If a question does not feed one of these, cut it.
| Measure | The question it answers | What you ask |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | What starts a purchase? | The event or need behind the last purchase |
| Planning level | Is the brand chosen before or at the point of purchase? | Brand decided, category decided, or decided on the spot |
| Channel | Where is it won? | Where the last purchase happened, and the other channels used |
| In-store or in-app levers | What changes the choice at the last step? | Offers, placement, pack size, ratings, sponsored listings |
| Switching | Who gains and loses share? | The brand bought last time and the reason for any change |
A shopper who plans the brand at home is reached by media and distribution. A shopper who decides at the shelf or on the app is reached by placement, price and pack. The planning-level question tells you which job you have.
A Worked Question Flow (Illustrative)
The flow below is for a packaged snack. It is a design to follow, not a result. The routing column names features our survey builder documents: carry-forward, option loops, piping, display logic and consistency checks. Details are in our skip logic guide.
| Step | Question | Type | Routing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which of these have you bought in the last 4 weeks? (snacks among decoy categories) | Multi-select | Screen out if snacks not picked |
| 2 | What made you buy snacks last time? | Single-select, plus open 'other' | None |
| 3 | Which is closest: I had decided the brand before leaving, I had decided the type only, I decided on the spot | Single-select | Display logic: planners skip step 8 |
| 4 | Which of these places have you bought snacks from in the last 4 weeks? | Multi-select | Options carried forward to step 5 |
| 5 | Which one did you use for your last purchase? | Single-select | Carry-forward from step 4 |
| 6 | For each place you picked, what is the main reason you use it? | Single-select per place | Option loop over step 4 |
| 7 | Which of these did you notice on the last purchase? (offer, placement, pack size, ratings, sponsored listing) | Multi-select | Randomised options; step 8 carries noticed items |
| 8 | Which of those noticed items changed what you bought? | Single-select | Carry-forward from step 7 |
| 9 | Which brands did you look at or think about? | Multi-select | Carried to steps 10 and 11 |
| 10 | Which brand did you buy? | Single-select | Carry-forward from step 9 |
| 11 | Why did you not choose [brand considered, not bought]? | Single-select per brand | 'Filter out' carries forward the unpicked brands, looped |
| 12 | The time before, you bought [brand from step 10] or something else? Why? | Single-select, open | Piping of the step 10 brand; consistency check: step 5 channel must be among step 4 channels |
Three design choices matter. First, step 1 screens among decoys with a time frame, so the question does not reveal the category. Second, the levers in step 7 are shown before you ask which one mattered, so respondents recall the occasion before they judge it. Third, the age band, gender, city and NCCS class are already on the panel profile, so you do not ask them again. That keeps the survey short on a phone.
How to Read Planning Level and Levers
Cut step 3 by channel. If most quick-commerce purchases were decided on the spot and most kirana purchases were brand-planned, the two channels need different plans. Do not state the difference until your base sizes support it: each cut needs enough respondents (see sample size guidance).
For levers, report two numbers per lever: the share of all respondents who noticed it, and the share of noticers who said it changed the choice. Planners skip step 8, so state that base (noticers who were not planners) beside the figure. A lever that many notice but few act on is visible but weak. A lever few notice but most of those act on is worth making easier to see.
If you have more than about eight levers, replace step 7 and step 8 with a MaxDiff exercise. Rating grids tend to give you a list of everything as important.
India Notes: Kirana, Modern Trade and Quick Commerce
Keep the channel list specific. 'Kirana or neighbourhood store', 'supermarket or modern trade chain', 'quick-commerce app' and 'other e-commerce app' are separate answers. Merging them hides the finding.
Datum's study, reported on 20 November 2024, says kirana stores' market share fell from 95 per cent in 2018 to 92.6 per cent in 2023 and is projected to reach 88.9 per cent by 2028. It also says quick commerce is the fastest-growing retail channel for 2023 to 2028 and that 46 per cent of quick-commerce users have reduced purchases from kirana stores. These are one firm's estimates for a share of the market, not your category.
So ask about both channels in your own category before you assume a shift. A question such as 'Compared with a year ago, do you buy this snack from [kirana] more, the same or less?' is more useful than a market-wide headline.
Phrase channel and brand names in the shopper's own language. Our panel supports 8+ Indian languages, so run the same flow in the language the respondent uses at the counter.
What an Online Panel Cannot See
A survey records what people say they did. It does not record what the shelf looked like. For shelf work, pair the survey with store audits or intercepts.
Our panel is app-based, so it reaches smartphone users only. Households that shop only at the local store and do not use a smartphone are under-represented. If kirana-only shoppers are your target, plan face-to-face fieldwork for that group, as our panel methodology says for offline households.
Running This Study on Hercules
If your job is a shopper survey of smartphone-using Indian consumers, this is what the flow above costs at list price on a 400-response main study.
| Step | Plan | Responses | Price per response | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test the flow on a phone | Free | 30 | ₹0 | ₹0 |
| Small pilot | Plus | 100 | ₹150 | ₹15,000 |
| Main study | Pro | 400 | ₹120 | ₹48,000 |
Pro is sold in bundles of 400 to 1,000 responses and costs 20% less per response than Plus. Enterprise plans come with a dedicated research team and are priced on request. Targeting runs by city, tier, age band, gender (male or female) and NCCS class, and the study can be set up in 8+ Indian languages.
SuperJ has a 25M+ consumer footprint in India only. The survey-eligible panel is a subset, so availability depends on your targeting. Members complete Aadhaar-based KYC once, and each study gets a zero-knowledge proof, not identity documents. Speeders, straight-lining and inconsistent answers are removed before analysis. See panel methodology and pricing. The limit is above: smartphone users only.
Frequently asked questions
What is a path to purchase survey?
A survey that reconstructs how shoppers reached a recent purchase: the trigger, how much was planned, the channel, what influenced the final choice and whether they switched brands. It is built around the last purchase, not general habits.
What questions go in a path to purchase survey?
Cover five things: what triggered the purchase, whether the brand was decided beforehand, where it was bought, which offer, placement or pack factors changed the choice, and what was bought last time. The twelve-step table above gives the wording and routing.
How is path to purchase different from a usage and attitude study?
A usage and attitude study maps how people use a category over time. A path to purchase study follows one buying occasion to find where the choice is won. See our guide to usage and attitude surveys.
How many respondents does a shopper survey need?
It depends on the cuts you need. Each channel or brand group you want to report separately needs its own sufficient base, so decide the cuts first and size the sample from them. At 400 total, a split into four groups leaves about 100 each.
Can I compare kirana and quick commerce shoppers in one survey?
Yes, if you list them as separate channels and screen for recent purchase in each. Remember the panel is app-based, so shoppers without smartphones are under-represented, which matters most for kirana-only households.
Should I ask about brand switching?
Yes. Ask for the brand bought last time and the reason for any change, with the earlier brand piped into the question text. Pipe the earlier brand into the question text, and report switching only among those who answered both.
Does the survey show what happens on the shelf or on the app screen?
No. It shows what shoppers recall and say. To see placement or listing position, add an audit, screenshots or an in-store observation.
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