As India completes nearly a month under lockdown, Snapdeal – India’s leading value-focused e-commerce marketplace – released data on non-essential products that Indians wish to purchase.
The platform has been receiving and accepting orders for a range of non-essential items during the lockdown. It will begin deliveries post lockdown. Users continue to add products in their shopping carts on Snapdeal in the hope that they will be able to buy these products soon.
Since the start of the lockdown, Snapdeal recorded a 24x jump in products being added to users’ shopping carts and wish-lists. On average, buyers had nine items in their carts and wish-lists. Nearly 25 percent of the lockdown shopping list was generated by new shoppers on Snapdeal.
So far delivery of only essential products like food, grocery, medicines, masks & sanitizers etc is permitted through all online marketplaces including Snapdeal.
Moreover, Snapdeal surveyed users to understand the products they would wish to buy once the lockdown is lifted. While lakhs of orders already placed and many waiting in the shopping carts or in the customer wishlists, it is an interesting insight into what India is looking to buy. Here are India’s most-wished-for products:
Apparel: The top category amidst users, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the products purchased or added to the shopping carts. Items most in demand include summer fashion wear like t-shirts, bermuda shorts, skirts, cropped tops etc. Reflecting the current lifestyle of users, casual wear items like track pants and nightwear products including top and pyjama sets and nighties figure high on shopping lists. Open sandals and flip flops priced between Rs 300-900 are another popular pick with buyers.
Personal grooming: Hair trimmers for men, epilators, waxing strips are in high demand on all days of the lockdown. More than 80,000 users have either bought or added these products to their shopping carts. Amidst other beauty products, hair color and aloe vera cream also a popular choice.
Work from home essentials: Earphones and headphones, laptop tables, home printers, wi-fi routers, USB chargers, data cables and extension cords are in high demand. Users have also added back support pillows to their shopping carts.
Mobile chargers, screen protectors and covers for mobile phones continue to remain a popular choice across the entire country.
Household Products: Snapdeal has seen a 80 percent growth over usual demand trends. Pressure cookers, Roti makers, egg boilers, kitchen tools like multi-function scissors and automatic mops reflect the efforts on the parts of the users to manage their households with limited or no domestic help. Bedsheets, towels, wall decorations, planting accessories & vegetable seeds for their home gardens are other items in high demands. LED bulbs, emergency lights also figure high on the demand index.
Fitness: Confined to their homes, users are extensively browsing training weights, tummy trimmers, abdominal rollers, gym balls and fitness bands amidst other such products.
School Supplies: Notebooks, school textbooks, stationery items (pens, pencils, crayons, geometry sets) is one of the most ordered categories, which is also seeing the highest number of follow up calls and queries from parents anxious for the delivery of these items. Students have ordered a range of books for the forthcoming competitive exams.
Other popular items that India has bought or added to their shopping carts on Snapdeal are Anti-snoring devices, Spiritual books, Stress-buster balls, Indoor games like Ludo, Scrabble and Uno, Soft toys, Anti-clogging filters for kitchen sinks and Musical instruments like guitars, flutes and mouth organs.
The price range for the products on India’s lockdown shopping list ranges from Rs 68 to Rs 18,200.
Over 75 percent of the shopping list has been generated from non-metro cities, with maximum shoppers from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat & Madhya Pradesh. Interestingly, customers from UP ordered more products to relax (stress-buster balls, spiritual books and musical instruments) while those from Maharashtra wanted more household products. Punjab users ordered more apparels while Gujarat placed most orders for fitness products.
On April 19, the Ministry of Home Affairs’ revoked the permission to sell non-essential items by e-commerce firms. Delivery of only essential products – food, groceries, medicines, masks, sanitizers, etc. – are permitted via online marketplaces, including Snapdeal.
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