Saree beat oversized clothes as 2023's most shopped clothing item: Flipkart

Wireless headphones topped the gadget list while saree beat oversized and unisex fashion wear to emerge as the most shopped clothing item in 2023, according to e-commerce marketplace Flipkart's FlipTrends 2023.

The report -- which gives a view into India's online shopping landscape -- is based on over 500 million registered Flipkart users.

"While oversized and unisex fashion wear were some of the most popular lifestyle searches this year, the timeless saree was the most shopped product in 2023 on Flipkart. Within the fashion category, women's clothing across ethnic, contemporary, and western wear remained at the top of shopping lists," read the report.

On the gadgets front, besides bullet headphones, the e-marketplace witnessed almost 3.2 times growth in premium laptops and a 100 per cent surge in tablet demand in 2023, reflecting the desire to upgrade for many.

Shoppers spent an average of seven hours on the homegrown e-commerce marketplace this year, it said.

The report also saw a four-time growth in action and adventure cameras and a three-time growth in premium styling products as compared to 2022.

"Face-care products were the most shopped under the grooming category, followed by hair care and body care. The most popular face-care product was face wash, specifically those with glycolic acid and salicylic acid, followed by shampoo under the hair care category and moisturisers under body-care category," it added.

Further, 'The Gift of Giving' also remained strong throughout the year with shoppers across India going on a gift card shopping spree.

"The third-party brand gift cards on Flipkart grew by 40 per cent in 2023 as compared to 2022, especially for the gold and diamond jewellery and gaming categories," it noted.

Also, as per the report, the rising appetite for shopping was shared by metros and tier-one and tier-two cities alike.

So, while metropolitan hubs like Bengaluru and New Delhi topped the list of metro city shoppers' chart; Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Varanasi, Ernakulam, Guwahati, Cuttack, Medinipur, and Bankura were some of the top tier-1, 2 and 3 cities that had the busiest shopping carts this year with many of them sharing shopping preferences.

"The FlipTrends report 2023 shows consumer behaviour in a country that is possibly the most diverse when it comes to shopper profiles. This trend report is based on shopper behaviour throughout this year, unveiling the pulse of purchase and search behaviour," said Ravi Vijaya Raghavan, senior vice-president (analytics and data science) at Flipkart.