Apparels and accessories to top Indian online sales charts

Apparels and accessories are expected to emerge as the hottest sellers in online shopping search this year, displacing consumer electronics items that dominated last year, in terms of absolute query volumes.

A Google India study showed, search figures for consumer electronics at 34 per cent, followed by apparels and accessories at 30 per cent in 2012.

Other popular online search category for  Indian consumers were books (15 per cent), beauty and personal care (10 per cent), home and furnishing (6 per cent), baby products (2 per cent) and healthcare (3 per cent).

''In 2013, we see apparels and accessories' queries going up to 35-36 per cent and consumer electronics down from 34 per cent to around 30 per cent because of more options available in apparels and accessories,'' Nitin Bawankule, Industry Director-Ecommerce, Classifieds and Media, Google India, told reporters in New Delhi.

According to the  report, apparels and accessories already figured among the top categories ever for online purchases with 84 per cent in 2012. Electronics came next (71 per cent), beauty and personal care (64 per cent), books (62 per cent) and household products (61 per cent).

Baby products, healthcare, and home and furnishing that clocked 200 per cent growth over 2012 growth, and are expected to maintain the trend in 2013 due to demand  growth.