CHENNAI: The lockdown has wreaked havoc for business across all sectors, but it seems matrimonial websites are an exception since they are witnessing a rise in number of new customers.With most people confined to their houses amid lockdown, they are spending more time online browsing and finding prospective partners. The trend is helping matrimonial websites in garnering customers.
Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder and CEO, Matrimony.com, whose flagship brand is Bharat Matrimony, said that on an average, they see around 14,000 to 15,000 registrations a day, but after the lock down there has been a 30 per cent increase in the number of registrations on their site.Similar is the scenario with Shaadi.com.
According to Adhish Zaveri, Director — Marketing, Shaadi.com, they are also witnessing a surge of over 20 per cent in new customer registration during the lockdown period.
From offering special schemes to helping the couples in getting married virtually amid lockdown, the matrimonial websites are not leaving any stone unturned to attract customers.Janakiraman said that due to hectic working hours and time constraints, many youngsters delayed their marriage plans.
But now, since the majority of the professionals are working from home and have nowhere to go due to lockdown, they have ample time in hand.
Time which is being utilised in browsing partners online and shortlisting profiles. “The engagement level of customers and profile acquisitions on our site is growing. To meet the rising demand, we have leveraged our services also,” said Janakiraman.
Special offers are being provided wherein customers won’t have to pay for the lockdown days, and their memberships will be extended automatically.Shaadi.com is utilising the opportunity to enhance its reach among customers by focussing more on social media campaigns. Besides, in order to help the couples who were not able to tie knot due to lockdown, Shaadi.com has started a novel concept of “Wedding from Home”.
The website is providing free of cost services for arranging weddings virtually for couples who want to get married during the lockdown. Right from organising sangeet performances by friends to priests solemnising marriage via video call, the website is taking measures to provide a complete marriage experience to couples.
The weddings are live streamed and family and friends connect from across the country. “The initiative has received overwhelming response and so far we have conducted two weddings,” said Zaveri.