Spruce up your castle as you stay home-bound in the times of Covid-19

Spend on home improvement as the lockdown forces you to stay indoors; Here are some devices and gadgets that help achieve both better quality of life and self-sufficiency

What does the typical home require? This is a question that the lady of the house would always answer, with the man reluctantly filling in the gaps. As social scientists say, after having stayed back during lockdown for so long, men have developed a “new-found respect” for the work womenfolk have always been doing. Add to that the fear of lockdown getting extended and the maid not coming back anytime soon, stay-at-home individuals now feel the need to invest in making their homes comfortable and are buying gadgets that help and support the family--especially the housewife--with basic chores.

Take the case of Neetu Ahuja, a 35-year-old housewife based in Gurugram for whom washing utensils thrice a day was becoming a cumbersome task along with other household responsibilities. Says Ahuja, “While my family members took turns washing the utensils, it was that one painful task we just wanted to give a miss. As soon as lockdown eased, we got a dishwasher.”

Bring home the convenience

Home has now become more than just the pit-stop after a day’s work and people are increasingly looking at how they can increase the efficiency of this space “an epicentre of existence” in the times of Covid -19. Says Ritesh Ghosal, CMO, Infiniti Retail Limited, Croma, “There has been an increase in demand for products that aid convenience such as vacuum cleaners, food processors, washing machines, dishwashers. With WFH here to stay, we are also seeing a surge in the sale of laptops, Wi-Fis, routers, smartphones with good front-facing cameras to enable video calling. While we are almost towards the end of the summer season, AC and coolers have also shown pent up demand from customers who were either looking for upgrades or add-on products.”

With WFH becoming the new normal, the residential air-conditioner segment for the HVAC industry is expected to be more resilient, Says Chirag Baijal, MD, Carrier India ACs, “Indoor air quality has become a subject of great importance in the air-conditioner segment, after energy efficiency. ACs high on technology and filtration are generating a great deal of interest in the premium segment.”

Baijal talks about Carrier's latest niche product developed with Toshiba called ‘DaiSeiKai’ that can remove a virus the size of the SARS (which belongs to same family as Coronavirus). With this unique filtration process, DaiSeiKai can remove up to 99.5 per cent of airborne viruses, 95 per cent of airborne bacteria, and 99.7 per cent airborne fungi from your room in less than two hours.

He gives an insight into the customer mindset saying that all said and done, “India is still a patriarchal mindset. The spending of the male member is no longer on show-off kind of items like holidays and cars, and is getting directed differently towards home and this is bringing a very fundamental change on spending on more value-based products. The indoor air quality will play an important role in times to come even after we have a vaccine in place.”

Vacuum cleaners and air purifiers are seeing massive traction, with a multi-fold increase in queries and sales. There is a huge demand for technology that can help people maintain healthy homes, says a spokesperson from Dyson. He adds, "Vacuum cleaners like the latest Dyson V11 Absolute ProCordfree have been in huge demand ever since the lockdown restrictions were eased. There have been instances of vacuum cleaners going out of stock in the face of this unprecedented demand on all channels.” On air purifiers, Dyson is witnessing an increase in uptake, not just in Delhi, but also from other centres like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad.

Grooming products are high on the consumer shopping list--largely attributed to a need to self-groom, since the spas and salons have been shut for so long. There has been a 5x spike in the sale of beard trimmers, confirms Ravindra Singh Negi, President-Electrical Consumer Durables, Havells India. “The purchase decisions are not just based on the 'here and now', but also on being future-ready as people don’t want to step into parlour immediately,” he says.

After the easing of lockdown, even the home and kitchen appliances have got a shot in the arm. “The lines between what was hitherto essential, and non-essential and discretionary items are blurring. Currently we are seeing uptake of domestic appliances such as air fryer, mixers, juicer, blender as these seem to invade the essentials category,” says Negi.

With cinema houses remaining shut, home theatre is another segment that is drawing interest. For Bengaluru-based software engineer Pritham, the lockdown acted as a catalyst to fulfil his long-held desire of buying an in-house entertainment. Last week he bought a Klipsch 5.1 for Rs 3 lakh. Says Arjun Agarwal, CEO and Director, Cinerama, “We have seen an uptake of home theatres in the range of Rs 3-6 lakh for people who have homes with a dedicated space for a home theatre. The queries and sales have been for mid- to high-end category of home entertainment such as Jamo (Rs 1-3 lakh) and Klipsch (Rs 5-6 lakh). But the bestseller is the soundbar costing Rs 60,000 to Rs 1 lakh post lockdown. Those with good television sets just plug this into a soundbar to get a perfect system.”

Home theatre is registering great demand post lockdown, with speakers priced between Rs 60,000 and Rs 6 lakh. This set comes from Jamo studio

Spike in demand for hygiene devices 

The demand for sanitisation and touchless devices is seeing an enormous uptake.

Hygiene is the top-of-the-mind category. In the bathrooms, cleansing seats that not only provide convenience but also handsfree hygiene, have seen a steady growth over the past few years, says Salil Sadanandan, President-Kitchen and Bath, Kohler. “We believe this category will see a massive jump in the near future as hygiene-conscious consumers will look to replace their normal toilet seat with a touchless one,” he says. It is especially popular among female users who can use it for anterior cleaning too. Some of them find it extremely useful for toilet-training their young ones.

Besides, the demand for touchless or sensor faucets has jumped five times since March due to Covid-19. Kohler’s touchless faucets, which use the time-of-flight sensor used in smart phones instead of conventional Infrared sensors and achieve faster fact actuation (0.75 seconds), start from Rs 16,000. Another product selling in the bathroom space that facilitates deep cleansing is the steam generator, which provides a private steam bath, cleansing the body of toxins and impurities in just 60 seconds.

Automated floor cleaners are much in demand. Plug-and-play will rule as compared to devices which require home installation in the home cleaning segment, says Shishir Gupta, founder Oakter Smart Home, a home automation company. Their  thesis is that increased demand for dishwashers and automated floor cleaners will lead to reduction of price of existing products and also launch of newly designed economical products in coming months. Says Gupta- “We recently developed an Automatic Sanitizer Dispenser in partnership with DRDO, and we are getting large number of enquiries for it.” 

Energy-efficient & Alexa-powered devices on the rise

Technology has made life easier and people are able to function without a maid during this period, with greater efficiency. Says Croma’s Ghosal, “The period has given rise to the 'responsible consumer', and this is manifested in the preference for resource-efficient appliances-–inverter ACs and refrigerators, and front-loading washing machines. Such a consumer also ensures that once the product has served its lifetime, it is disposed of correctly.”

Voice search-enabled smart devices are growing in acceptance. Google and Amazon have tried to push their speakers into people’s home and the top brands across a spectrum of products are bundling this feature into their products. Take the case of Alexa-enabled Verdera Voice activated mirror which comes for Rs 1.5 lakh. "This is the future of mirrors and we plan to bring it to India soon," says Kohler’s Sadanandan. “All you have to do is ask Alexa, to adjust the lights to the ideal brightness for any grooming activity, play music, get the weather, tell a joke, and more - Alexa will respond instantly.”

Invest wisely and sustainably

While there has been a rush to get the best in class gadgets, architect Saket Sethi, Founder of Archilogics, alerts against overdoing this. You “don’t need to do a lot” to make your home functional. Invest based on what your real requirement is. Ask yourself this question what is it that you want to achieve out of your space. For instance, if you want a digital work desk and need two screens, you look at those solutions together if you are clever about it you will not end up spending too much or occupying space.

There is a need to maximise utility of an existing product or solution at home. Most of us live in small spaces and we need our homes to support a variety of functions. Sethi, who has anchored design shows on TV shares the example of a recent episode of Fox Life’s “Design HQ” with Karan Johar, where they spoke about “live work hybrid glam space” – during the day, in the living room projector screens come down and you are able to do video calls and project your work from a laptop while in the evening in the same space, you can watch a movie. The furniture you choose allows you to change the layout.”

Another aspect is sustainability. If you marry technology with sustainability, you can easily lower the temperature of the house by 4-5 degrees and then we don’t need to buy so many ACs. We must try and return to the local ecosystem as much as we can, so that we don’t end up spending on too many gadgets, advises Sethi.

Home improvement gadget	Price range	Brand
Vacuum Cleaner	Rs 3,350-60,000	Dyson V11 TM vacuum is available in 2 variants–-Nickel (Rs 52,900) and gold (Rs 59,900)
Air-conditioner	Rs 25,000-1,00,000	LG 1.5-ton/5-star/inverter/copper condenser/ split ac (Rs 47,990); DaiSeiKai (Rs 85,000 onwards)
Home Theatre	Rs 40,000-6,00,000	Home Theatre system from Klipsch and Jamo with speaker set costs Rs 1.5- Rs 6 lakh while soundbars such as Klispch Bar 48 cost Rs 59,800
Dishwasher

Rs 38,994-1,55,000  Siemens SN558S06TE Integrated Dishwasher (Stainless Steel; Rs 1,55,000)

Automated Floor Cleaners 

Rs 19,900-45,900  Dyson’s Floor Care range also includes the Dyson Cyclone V10 Absolute Pro (Rs 45,900), Dyson V8 Absolute+ (Rs 39,900), Dyson V8 Animal+ (Rs 33,900), Dyson V7 Animal (RS 29,900); and a handheld vacuum-Dyson V7 Trigger (RS 19,900)

Fast movers grooming range 

Rs 800-3,000 Havells (Rs 1,300-1,400) Kitchen appliances Rs 1,400-7,000 Havells (Rs 2,500-4,000)

Bathroom Gadgets 

Rs 8,000-1.5 lakh  Kohler’ Touchless or Sensor Faucets (Rs 16,000); Alexa-enabled Verdera Voice activated mirror of Verdera mirrors (Rs 1.5 lakh) Air Purifier  Rs 25,000-55,900  Dyson Pure Hot+Cool air purifier plus heater, Dyson Pure Cool Dyson’s portfolio of air purifiers in India also includes Dyson Pure Cool Advanced Technology Desk (Rs 39,900), Dyson Pure Cool Link Tower (Rs 25,900); and Dyson Pure Cool Me (Rs 25,900) Source: Individual Companies/Aggregator Stores/E-Commerce Portals




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