Snapdeal’s home category saw sales go up by 70% since the pandemic began in March 2020, the company announced. This growth, Snapdeal said, was predominantly led by kitchenware and home improvement category products. Kitchenware saw a 50% jump, and home improvement saw a 100% percent jump in demand. Demand was not only from metro cities like Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad but more substantially from places like Srinagar, Udaipur, Guwahati, Bhopal, and Mangaluru, the company said. “More than 75% of the products were shipped to non-metro addresses. On average people bought items in the range of Rs 400-900,” Snapdeal said. 

Snapdeal said its customers bought home decor items such as rack shelves, blackboards and whiteboards, wall clocks,  paintings and decals and lampshades. They also purchased home linen which mostly included bed sheets and bed covers, pillows and tablecloths etc. 

“With homes doubling up as their office and workout space, kids' rooms being remodelled to be classrooms, they are comfortable to spend more to make their homes more suitable for the way they are living now,” a Snapdeal spokesperson said.

For the kitchen, Snapdeal said that the customers fixed old kitchen appliances such as mixers and choppers, storage containers, and changed their serveware to easy-to-use steel or unbreakable glass variants. Purchases for the kitchen, Snapdeal said, included pressure cookers, multi-function knives and peelers and water dispensers.

In addition to home decor and kitchen improvement, other trends include home cleaning items where they purchased automatic mops, microfibre cleaning cloths, upholstery brushes, gloves, disinfectant wipes, and drain unblockers.

Gardening and related categories also grew nearly 2.5 times, Snapdeal said, in the last 15 months. Fruits and vegetable seeds, bio compost, pot holders and water sprinkler attachments have been popular buys, it added. 

“There has been an unusual spike in demand for home improvement tools like home tool kits (incl drills and screwdriver sets), painting machine sets, wiring solutions, and closet organizers. Users also bought utility items like step ladders and solar rechargeable lights,” it further added. 

In the last year, Snapdeal said it has doubled down on adding more home category sellers and manufacturers in popular hubs like Jaipur, Panipat, Ludhiana, Rajkot, Moradabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Chennai.