Coronavirus Outbreak: Indians make most of lockdown as libido conquers social distancing at homes; sales of adult toys zoom over 100%

In the time of a lockdown announced by the goverment in the wake of coronavirus outbreak, just as the demand for food supplies, masks and medicines has risen, so has it for condoms, pills and adult toys. The sector is seeing a whopping rise in enquiries and subsequently in sales with almost 24-28 percent rise in revenues. There is a phenomenal rise in the demand for products like adult sex toys, condoms in the sexual wellness industry. Some sites that are solely focussed on sexual wellness reveal that their traffic has doubled to over 100 percent since. Sources at a leading e-commerce site also said sales of condoms and contraceptives have jumped online, said reports. Sexual wellness is a wide net and can cover everything from female hygiene and care, lightening and tightening creams, energy shots and male enhancement creams and sprays, pregnancy tests and intimate washes, condoms and lubes, toys (that are not obscene looking and can pass off as shoulder/feet massagers). [caption id=“attachment_3409502” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image courtesy: Reuters[/caption] Lucknow tops the chart among tier 2 cities with the most queries and products bought followed by Pune, Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. “We saw a spike in sales since 16 March and traffic doubled at 104 percent since 15 March”, said Raj Armani, Co- Founder, IMBesharam.  IMBesharam, a company set up in 2011 January in California. The  most searched products on the website since  are butt plugs, anal lube, eye mask, thrust vibe, lovense lush (long distance toy) and fleshlight. Armani said that he believes this surge in enquiries and sales of products on the site is a direct relation to people staying at home, running out of routine and looking to experiment with new and creative options. Over the last 7 days, the site has shipped over 3,960 orders mostly to Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai with each order averaging Rs 5,865 . “We are seeing 2-25 percent daily sales since the last three weeks,” he said. IMBesharam  usually gets about 2,000 orders per week and the order values average between Rs 4,000-Rs 5,000.   The global sexual wellness market is expected to reach values of around $39 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of more than 7 percent during 2019-2024. Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak The trend has started post-news of the outbreak of COVID19 in India increased. Much before Work From Home (WFH) was made mandatory, many offices had started WFH voluntarily. It was then that shoppers started browsing products online across categories to avoid offline, said Vineshkumar Kunhiraman, Chief Marketing Officer, ThatsPersonal.com. The sexual wellness industry received a massive boost after Netflix’s Lust Stories went viral. The searches for sex toys for Women increased by 54 percent, said Kunhiraman. The other days in the year when this industry gets a fillip in business is Valentine’s Day—sales increase by 33 percent with the addition of gift hampers; Pride Month- sale of unisex and LGBT range increased by 21 percent; Women’s Day-sales campaign witnessed a 26 percent increase particularly female toys; Navratri 33 percent of customers who ordered in 2018 again ordered in 2019 and this was particularly so from one state, ie: Gujarat; Christmas-lubricant sales got a boost of 19 percent. Kunhiraman said with the launch of Reliance Jio, mobile traffic contribution has grown by 27 percent. “Our stock of masks is over. Many people are demanding chloroquin and Vitamin C. And the sale of condoms has also increased,” said Shah Nawaz of Loyal Pharmacy in south Delhi’s New Friend’s Colony area to PTI. A staffer at another pharmacy in central Delhi who did not wish to be named echoed Nawaz. He said while many people are stocking up on hydroxychloroquine sulfate as a possible drug against COVID-19, the sale of condoms has also increased quite a bit. Products in demand Armani said the online site sells 60 percent sex toys for men and 40 percent sex toys for women. However, the 40 percent products are valued almost 60 percent of the firm’s sales. “In the last 7 weeks, the ratio remains same but because more toys for women sold are higher prices, for instance,  Lovense Lush which is available on the site for Rs 22,999, the overall sales for toys for women is about 68 percent,” he said. That’spersonal.com has seen categories among its products in much demand like massagers, masturbators,  condoms, and lubricants. The toys sold since the work-from-home was announced has been in the range of Rs 1,500-Rs 2,500. During this period, the order size increased by 8 percent, said Kunhiraman. In these times of ‘social distancing’ IMBesharam has observed that customers are looking for toys that can be operated by remote or apps. “These toys do not have to be in physical proximity to each other. The world’s most popular toy is Lovense Lush which can be controlled using an app from the next room, different city or basically any place in the entire world,” he said.