Demand for smartphones and RO water purifiers in India: Just Dial Consumer Insights

Mumbai, India: In this season of online sales and discounts, demand for smartphones, RO water purifiers was higher in Tier-II towns and cities vis-à-vis Tier-I while that for ACs remained at par, revealed the Just Dial Consumer Insights.

The latest insights reveal that smartphones, RO water purifiers, ACs, car batteries, and car accessories were the top-5 most searched hardware categories on Just Dial, India’s No.1 local search engine. Smartphones dominated the bulk of the searches at 60% followed by water purifiers (15%), car accessories (9.67%), ACs (8.5%), and car batteries (6.73%).

Searches for smartphones in Tier-II cities were 15% higher compared to Tier-I. Among Tier-I cities, Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad were the top-3 cities, which witnessed maximum demand for smartphones. Chandigarh was the top Tier-II city generating the maximum demand for smartphones while Jaipur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, and Patna completed the top-5.

Commenting on the trend, Mr. Prasun Kumar, CMO, Just Dial, said: “At a time when e-commerce companies are raining discounts, the rise in demand for smartphones, air purifiers, ACs, and other products on Just Dial augurs well for offline retailers. We have been successful in aggregating all the offline retailers across India to create a perfect ecosystem to boost Q-commerce or neighborhood commerce. This has not only provided them with a level playing field against e-commerce players but has also widened the market for them. The rise in online searches in Tier-II cities is also a testament to the fact that Just Dial has become the first port of call for all consumers for searching and comparing the best deals. Overall searches in Tier-II cities have remained 12% ahead of Tier-II and this reflects the growing reliability of Just Dial in India’s hinterland.”

For RO water purifiers, searches in Tier-II towns and cities were 16% higher than Tier-I. Among Tier-I cities, Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai were the top-3 cities generating maximum demand for water purifiers. The top-5 Tier-II cities in terms of demand were Lucknow, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Patna, and Indore.

The forthcoming summer season in India has also pushed up demand for ACs as demand in Tier-II towns and cities remained at par. Mumbai topped the list in terms of demand while Delhi and Chennai were second and third respectively among Tier-I cities. Surat, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Vijayawada, and Visakhapatnam were the top-5 Tier-II cities with maximum demand for ACs.

Searches for car batteries and accessories have also gone up significantly on the platform as Just Dial attempts to aggregate online the highly fragmented auto accessories market that is estimated to be valued at around $2 billion in India.

Demand for car accessories in Tier-II cities was almost at par with Tier-I cities but that for car batteries in Tier-I cities was 33% ahead of Tier-I. For car accessories, Delhi, the traditional hub, topped the list among Tier-I cities followed by Mumbai and Bangalore. Among Tier-II cities, Chandigarh, Bokaro, Jaipur, Lucknow, and Surat were the top-5 that saw maximum demand for car accessories.

For car batteries, Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune were the top-3 Tier-I cities that generated maximum demand. Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Patna, Lucknow, and Indore were the top-5 Tier-II cities that saw maximum traction for car batteries.