Snapdeal, India's largest online marketplace, shared annual sales trends for its general merchandise category, for the period January 2016-2017, on Wednesday.
The company reported a 50 percent overall increase in the sale of GM products, with maximum contribution coming from the home and kitchen categories.
One clear trend that emerges from the data is an increasing affinity for products that are not just energy efficient, but also that support healthier lifestyle. In the metro cities for instance, the purchase of LEDs grew by 50 percent. Likewise, the sale of air fryers, which allow one to fry food without any oil showed a 100 percent spike over the last one year. Juicers, mixers and grinders showed 40 percent growth in sales. However, the overall highest contribution to the kitchen category came from stove tops, with the sale of variants across price range registering a 200 percent increase.
Sale trends suggest that customer preferences of shopping from online e-commerce are moving to a wider set of categories. This is in line with Snapdeal's aspiration to be a one stop destination for all shopping needs of the consumers. Categories like religion and spirituality, plants and gardening, pet supplies, painting and other home decor products doubled in the last one year.
Most of the growth in these categories is from Tier II and III regions, where Snapdeal is giving consumers a much wider array of choices than the retail stores in their region can provide.
Besides kitchen, furniture sales zoomed to 80 percent. The other high selling products include home decor items like bed-sheets and wall decoratives, water purifiers, microwaves, power tools, kids clothing and toys, men's and women's clothing and footwear.
"Our expanding general merchandise assortment ensures that we are able to provide for our consumers' every need in this category. Coupled with the fastest delivery in the industry and a price range for every pocket, we are confident that this upwards trend will continue. Growth in this category is also strategic to our business -- it ensures customer stickiness and more repeat purchases," said Vishal Chadha, Senior Vice President (Business), Snapdeal.
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