Bridging The Gap In The Indian Wedding Market

While digitisation has been taking over every aspect of our lives, the pandemic has accelerated it further. Today, everything from work to planning a wedding can be executed digitally. Wedding planning has always been stressful and complex but the online wedding-planning marketplace has further found relevance in the pandemic hit world. 

One such platform is The Knot Worldwide that empowers couples to pick and choose preferred vendors such as make-up artists and photographers within their budgets, manage a detailed wedding checklist to avoid last-minute confusion, draw inspiration and seek in-depth advice from a large community. The app's extensive directory of venues, vendor partners and ease of access makes it an ideal partner to help couples plan the wedding of their dreams, even amidst the unpredictable times of a pandemic. 

In an interview with BW Applause and Everything Experiential, Ankur Sarawagi, Country Head, The Knot Worldwide spoke about the upcoming wedding trends, the company’s ambition and commitment to the Indian market, future plans and more

Excerpts: 

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the wedding industry in India and on TKWW?

The wedding industry, like every other, has not been immune to the impact of COVID-19, both in terms of difficulty and innovation. During these unprecedented times, we were faced with last-minute cancellations and postponements as couples and families had no other option but to do so. However, with relaxations exercised by local governments on health and safety guidelines, it offered creative and innovative solutions for couples and our vendor partners to celebrate love, safely. The industry adapted itself by creating new wedding trends such as keeping celebrations smaller and more intimate, streaming ceremonies on video calls, suggest ‘shift’ weddings wherein couples host their wedding on the original date while having smaller batches of guests in shifts to adhere to social distancing norms, and ‘minimonies’ with immediate family celebrating their special day on their original wedding date followed by a larger event when the pandemic subsides.

How are The Knot Worldwide and Wedding Wire India filling the market gap and helping consumers navigate the challenges of wedding planning?

Weddings since the lockdown have become leaner and sustainable. Wedding technology apps such as The Knot Worldwide’s WeddingWire India, the largest free online, mobile wedding planning platform, have provided couples and families solutions to bridge the gap between them and vendors by enabling them to plan their dream wedding the way it was intended from comfort of their homes. The application offers features like finding a suitable wedding venue, vendor, budget allocation, managing guest list, thousands of blogs for ideas and inspiration, creating a customised wedding website and a lot more, just at a click of a button.

What sets TKWW and WWI apart in the wedding-technology industry?

Technology and digitisation came to the rescue during the pandemic. An event as complex as a wedding has been made easy through The Knot Worldwide’s wedding planning application, WeddingWire India. The platform is a one-stop solution that offers consumers several tools and access to thousands of wedding venues, vendors and partners to make their big day special, as it is meant to be. In addition to couples, WeddingWire India gives local business owners and vendors professionals’ exposure to thousands of couples and leads that are listed on their premium listing site. Therefore, it enables wedding venues and professionals to secure more business. The application has the ability to understand the unique needs of its customers and promises to provide resources and confidence needed to easily plan one’s special day - right from the proposal to the big day.

What are some upcoming and dominating trends of the wedding industry?

Couples and vendor partners worked in tandem by experimenting, understanding and exploring newer ways to celebrate love. By the second half of 2020, several businesses have reopened creating more opportunities and states have relaxed regulations on the size of social gatherings. However, there are certain innovative trends that were witnessed in 2020, that we will continue to see in the years ahead are the concept of intimate weddings which means that we may see a shift towards providing guests with more personalised/ customised, grander experiences in 2021, while still maintaining non-reduced budgets with greater reliance on technology and the rise of alternative entertainment experiences that keep guests engaged with the celebration from their seats or without all gathering in one place.  Additionally, wedding planners have become an essential part of wedding planning. 

Tell us about the company’s ambition and commitment to the Indian market.

The fundamental beliefs of The Knot WorldWide are built on the ethos of ‘We win together; We dream big; We respect all voices; We hustle every day and We love our users’. The company envisions a business model that roots from exclusivity. With WeddingWire India, our objective is to help couples navigate and enjoy life's biggest moments, together by providing them with the resources and confidence needed to easily plan their big day.

What are some of your future plans? Where do you see TKWW a few years down the line?

The wedding industry is particularly dynamic in nature with ever-changing trends and requirements. Therefore, in order to remain relevant in the wedding industry, it is imperative to enhance and adapt by the moment. With every passing year, The Knot Worldwide and WeddingWire India are improving its goals and objective as well as widening its services. Over the next few years, we want to continue to build a community of to-be-weds who can get the necessary help and answers to all of their wedding-related questions by interactions with other engaged couples.

We envision The Knot WorldWide and WeddingWire India to build awareness and be the frontrunner in the online wedding technology space. The long-term objective is to create interest and help bridge a gap in the Indian market with features and services that have helped wedding couples and vendors abroad plan a dream wedding in an efficient manner. Subsequently, the focus will continue to be on business expansion by extending the length and breadth across categories and geography.