What are Snapdeal’s top selling products? Do men spend more on grooming?

From men’s fairness creams to selfie sticks, from exam books to sarees, Snapdeal recently released the surprising shopping trends for the year 2015.

Demand for convertible laptops & tablets grew manifold

The sales of 2-in-1 computers – laptops & tablets multiplied by 5 times compared to 2014. Less power consumptions, long battery life and sim compatibility are said to be reasons for this 5X growth.

• Acer, Dell and Micromax were the most popular brands in 2015
• 80% of the demand came from non-metropolitan cities

Mobile phones remain top-selling category

Nothing beats the popularity of mobile phones & accessories when it comes to online retail. Same was the case with Snapdeal, where the top selling products of 2015 were smartphones and feature phones.

Here are some notable stats:

• Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai were the top 5 cities for feature phones
• Cover & cases by sellers Bomcase, Grafins, Molife, and Koloredge were top phone accessories
• Selfie sticks sold like hot cakes in tier-2 cities like Rajkot, Thane, Patiala, Nagpur, Nashik, Mysore and Ranchi
• Huge demand for regional language phone operating systems was observed in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal
• Micromax, Coolpad and InFocus were the top smartphone brands in tier 2 & 3 cities and small towns
• Hitech, Micromax, Zen, Videocon and Forme were the top selling feature phones

Men spent more on personal grooming than women

This revelation comes as a surprise as the common belief is that women spend more on personal grooming products. Thanks to the privacy that online shops offer, men splurged on personal care products in 2015, according to Snapdeal.

Below is the category’s performance report:

• Make-up category saw a growth of 700%
• The growth rate of men’s electronic grooming tools was 20% more than women’
• Men bought 3 times more perfume than women
• Demand for men’s fairness creams was high in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and West Bengal
• The top selling women’s personal hygiene products were sanitary pads and hair removal products

Buyers getting fitness conscious

Courtesy of the growing crop of health-conscious people, Snapdeal earned a lot of moolah from fitness equipment and accessories category. The marketplace revealed:

• Gross sales of fitness bands increased 10-fold in 2015 compared to 2014
• Sales of fitness equipment climbed 3-fold
• High air pollution pushed sales of air masks
• Top 5 cities for fitness category were Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai
• Sales of air-fryer increased 4-fold
• Highest selling products were Home Gym Sets, Ab Excercisers, Sauna Belts, Exercise Cycles and Abdominal Care Twisters.

Saree ruled in fashion category

Besides electronics, there’s always a huge demand for apparel and fashion products on online shopping sites. Snapdeal revealed that the humble saree was the highest selling product on the platform after smartphones.

• Demand for sarees from sellers based in Surat, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Mysore and Chennai was the highest
• Georgette, art silk and cotton sarees were hot selling items of 2015
• 40% of the shoppers who bought sarees from the portal were new buyers

Demand for competitive exam books spiked up by 300% due to exam fever. While Eastern India contributed 36% to the qualifying exam book sales, non-metro cities contributed 78% to the sales of job qualifying exam prep books.

So dear online sellers, please make note of these shopping trends to understand the kind of product categories, specific items and brands that sell the most on online marketplaces.