How Covid changed shopping: Floor cleaners, trimmers & gadgets became essentials
Many customers are sticking to cashless means of payment, for safety and ease.
By ET Bureau |
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People were stocking up for essentials, staples, laundry detergents and snack items during the lockdown.
The new normal meant that simple acts such as popping down the local store or visiting the mall were put on the back burner. Even our wants changed during the pandemic, with essentials taking over our shopping lists.
“Floor cleaners witnessed a growth of 184 per cent, health/nutrition jumped by 78 per cent, personal hygiene by 70 per cent and staples by 75 per cent. We also have seen a 170 per cent surge in ready-to-eat meals. Overall, people were stocking up for essentials, staples, laundry detergents and snack items,” says Saurabh Kumar, founder, Grofers.
“Over the last year, sellers have seen high demand in categories such as groceries and work-from-home enablers. We also saw a significant demand for personal grooming products such as trimmers, shavers, hair removal products as well as wellness products like weighing scales and BP monitors,” says an Amazon spokesperson.
Tech update With work-from-home and online school, the idea of what is termed essential has also adapted with brands seeing a sharp rise in electronic gadgets being purchased.
“There has been a surge in demand for smartphones and laptops while, at the same time, categories such as large TVs and gaming PCs have witnessed an uptick in demand as consumers look to up their entertainment quotient. From a general point-of-view, washing machines and refrigerators have seen an increased demand along with home automation products such as robot vacuum cleaners and roombas,” says Ritesh Ghosal, CMO, Croma. A majority of the consumers online and offline used credit cards or UPI payment mode. Online vs offline As things begin to slowly get back to normal, one aspect Nilesh Gupta, director, Vijay Sales noticed is that online is still popular, even though offline stores are opening up.
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“People were a little sceptical in the beginning to come to stores but then they started coming in as they wanted to touch and feel the product. The biggest change was that all consumers who came, bought the product and were not in browsing mode. Due to the pandemic, there is no doubt that quite a few consumers have experimented with online purchase and they may continue with online for some categories,” he shares.
Pay day During the lockdown, many online retailers stopped accepting cash-on-delivery and orders were available only through pre-paid payment methods. “While we received a positive response from customers on this move, more than 65 per cent of the customers were already using digital payments even before we initiated this precautionary measure,” says Kumar.
Even now, as stores open up, brands are noticing that their customers are sticking to cashless means of payment, for safety and ease. “The majority of the consumers online and offline used credit cards or UPI payment mode,” says Gupta.
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