Two months of lockdown in the country has turned many into avid gardeners exploring their green side by growing a variety of plants, including flowers and vegetables, in their gardens and balconies.
This is reflected in the increase in the sale of gardening products on Snapdeal, one of India’s leading online marketplaces. The overall sales in the gardening category for mid-March to mid-May this year is more than double the sales in the corresponding period last year.
Over the last two months, users have bought seeds to grow a range of vegetables including brinjals, bottle gourd (Laukee), bitter gourd (Karela), chill, coriander, etc. Everyday-use fruits like lemons and tomatoes have also been very popular. Lemon and tomato seeds were the most searched-for seeds on Snapdeal. Combo vegetable seeds pack with multiple varieties of seeds priced under ₹300 was another popular pick amongst Snapdeal shoppers.
A lot of concentrated demand was observed starting late April for moringa seeds as many users decided to grow moringa (drumstick) plants at home on account of its immunity-boosting properties.
Among flowers, rose, zinnia, petunia and marigold have been the favourite choice on account of their ability to grow well in summers.
Enthusiastic gardeners also bought a range of supplies including garden tool kits comprising trowels (khurpi), clippers, weeding forks, green nets to save plants from birds, spraying cans and seedling trays. Grow bags which are a cheaper alternative to pots were a hit.
Users also bought indoor plants like money plant, areca palm, rubber plant, and fiddle-leaf fig. Succulents were also widely searched and liked but seldom bought due to its high maintenance and low survival in Indian weather conditions.
Plastic pots in a variety of shapes, colours and sizes were in high demand. The popular price range of these were ₹50 to ₹250. Most users bought multi-packs of 4-12 pots. Traditional terracotta pots were also searched for but were not available due to difficulty in transporting the same.
According to Snapdeal spokesperson, “Gardening is considered a fun and relaxing way to get in touch with nature. In the lockdown period, we saw increased interest from our shoppers in this category, as they spent more time at home. From the nature of buying, we can infer that users are attempting to grow everyday-use fruits and vegetables at home. Our sellers also received queries for bulk supplies from those users who intend to grow organic produce for regular commercial sale.”
“Seeing the demand, we have onboarded new sellers in this category to ramp up supplies,” the spokesperson added.
Shoppers from Tier-2 cities bought most of the gardening supplies. Most orders came from Bhopal, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Dehradun, Gurgaon, Jamnagar, Lucknow, Mysore, Ranchi and Raipur.