India boasts of being the sixth largest consumer market in the world and home to the world’s largest youth population. Despite the strategic role played by this segment in spearheading India’s consumption movement, little academic research has gone into understanding their shopping orientations and behaviour. This study seeks to bridge the gap in extant research by examining shopping orientations of young adults using a modified version of a consumer styles inventory (CSI) adapted to the Indian context. The cross-cultural generalisability of the modified CSI is validated empirically, through random sampling of 630 young adults from South India. Principal Component Analysis is used to summarise the 46 initial variables into smaller sets of 35 composites that load onto 11 factors that explain 62% of the variance. The resultant factor structure, confirmed using CFA is found to demonstrate good fit to the data. Researchers also explore the predictive influence of shopping orientation on subsequent shopping behaviour. The results confirm the cross-national relevance of the original CSI scale while identifying three new traits specific to the Indian context. Apart from Recreational, Brand Conscious, Quality Conscious, Price conscious, Impulsive, Habitual, Novelty-oriented and Confused shoppers, the Indian sample is found to additionally include diligent shoppers, convenience seekers and uninterested shoppers. Shopping orientation significantly impacts the time and amount spent on shopping pursuits differently across gender groups and also predicts preference for online/offline store formats among young shoppers. Apart from being one of the few empirical studies profiling India’s youth based on their shopping orientations using the CSI inventory, the present research also reflects on inconsistencies in the available research literature. It has a captive audience in consumer groups and policy makers interested in the evolving consumption culture in India and also in retailers seeking segmentation and targeting insights for eliciting patronage from young consumer cohorts.