E-commerce giant Flipkart has witnessed an increase in searches for consumer electronic products, including personal grooming equipment such as trimmers. As salons and parlours continue to stay shut, consumers are looking for alternatives at home. Flipkart says that in the past fortnight, trimmers continued to be one of the top 10 most-searched products. Trimmers registered a 4.5x increase in searches since the beginning of April, the company informed.

Focussing on adopting a healthier lifestyle when indoors, there has been an increase in the search for shoes. To give a comparison, consumers have been searching for shoes 1.8x times more than sarees.

Another category that is in great demand is headsets. With people confined to their houses, they end up spending a lot of time on their screens - including smartphone, tablet, laptops - for various things such as work from home, fitness sessions, streaming media, and much more. There has been a surge of 200 per cent in search for headsets. Flipkart believes, this could also be a reflection of a growing trend in personal entertainment, where more people are seeking ways to create their own space in crowded households.

Summers started to settle in the south and west around February and March, whereas temperature has started to soar in the northern and eastern region as well. With temperatures soaring across the country, even searches for fans and air conditioners have more than doubled.

Mobile, which has been the most searched item for long, continued to trend atop during lockdown as well. However, there was a change in the search pattern as the mid-premium segment witnessed the biggest surge within the category, which consists of a wider product offering.

Interestingly, gas stove searches have doubled because people continue to spend time indoors and cooking has become a necessity for most.

Anil Goteti, Senior Vice President at Flipkart says, "At Flipkart, we continue to serve our customers by providing them products at their doorsteps through a safe and sanitised supply chain. This is carried out via robust SOPs which are in line with the guidelines shared by the government and local authorities. With e-commerce being allowed for essential and non-essential products in Orange and Green zones in specific states, we are seeing an increase in searches for products in categories such as laptops, consumer electronics (such as headphones), mobiles, air conditioners, coolers, t-shirts, and other essentials. We are working with lakhs of sellers and MSMEs across India, and helping them prepare their businesses and workforce to make products available for consumers in these times of need. Our seller support team is providing constant online counsel and support to sellers on our platform."