The pandemic has brought out a huge change to online shopping habits. While earlier, buying online was seen with skepticism, nowadays, it has become an essential service that keeps us safe from unnecessary interactions with outsiders. 

Our survey of people who Bought home appliance in the past 1-year report that more than 50% of people have bought it online instead of opting for in-store purchase. This change has brought out a difference in the way people gather information and make purchase decisions. While earlier salesman’s recommendations were gospel words, nowadays, hardly 7% of customers consider salesman’s recommendation as a deciding factor.

Customers are self-reliant and do extensive online research before buying any home appliance. 49% of respondents say that they take 1 week or less to decide which product to buy. And in the meanwhile, they rely heavily on external information to make a purchase decision. 23% of the total respondents took to the brand website for finding more information, while 22% check YouTube videos and 21% checked reviews on e-commerce portals to understand more about the product. Friends and family recommendation influenced 17% of purchase decisions.

And when it comes to finally choose the product, brand credibility ranked as the most important factor according to 38% of respondents. Price came a close second, with 33% of respondents considering it as the most important factor. Even so, hardly 3% of respondents decided to buy an appliance because of any irresistible deals or offers on the product.

Further, it is interesting to note that younger customers under the age of 40 have a higher infinity to buy online, which reduces with age. Also, a majority of younger consumers under the age of 35 bought new appliances to upgrade the old ones, consumers above the age of 35 bought new appliances because the old ones broke down. 

Moving to a new home is also a prime reason for new appliance purchase for 18% of people. 58% of respondents who bought refrigerators, 59% of those who bought TVs and 53% of those who bought washing machines, did so because they moved to a new home.

The survey also found that irrespective of the cost of the product, a majority of people made a purchase decision within less than a week. 

Other important findings are-

• 60% of respondents who bought TV prefer to check YouTube videos before buying.
  
• 49% of respondents purchased appliance within 1 week of researching.
  
• Product reviews play an important role in decision making, with 28% of respondents ranking it as the most important factor affecting their choice.
  
• 35% of those in the age group 35-44, 36% of those in the age group 45-54 and 50% of people aged 65+ bought a new appliance because the old one broke.
  
• 46% of those in the age group 25-34 bought new appliance in order to upgrade the old ones.

The survey was done online among 363 individuals who bought home appliances in the past year.

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