Beauty and personal care products saw a 76 per cent increase in volumes in 2022 compared to last year, thereby making them the fastest growing segments, a report by D2C focused platform, Unicommerce, revealed. Apart from this, the home decor and the eyewear and the accessories segment also seemed to have picked up considerably as the volumes grew by 59.2 per cent and 55.7 per cent, respectively, during the year. Other categories that contributed to the overall growth of the business ecosystem included home appliances and electronics, fast moving capital goods, health and pharmaceuticals, and a few others. The report also highlighted some of the emerging segments including the likes of petcare, nutraceuticals and baby products which have seen positive growth curves in the last one year. Kapil Makhija, CEO of Unicommerce, explained that technology has been an enabler for all the brands. He explained, “The all-round growth in the calendar year of 2022 is a result of the improved capabilities of brands and the enablements that technology has been able to offer them. Technology will continue to drive business growth, increased efficiencies and enhanced user experience as e-commerce becomes a mainstream channel across all parts of the retail ecosystem. We look forward to continuing to enable the growth of e-commerce in India and beyond.” Growth in cities beyond Tier I The report also revealed that despite the opening up of offline channels, the online market grew by 36 per cent. “The continuing and significant growth of e-commerce in a year that had tailwinds in terms of disruption to physical channels (like observed in 2020 and 2021), showcases the changing consumer behaviour and preferences,” the report highlighted. Moreover, this growth can be attributed to the demand coming from Tier II and III cities which displaced Tier I cities in market share within the ecommerce segment. About 6 out 10 items shipped in 2022 went to Tier II cities. And even demand coming from Tier III cities grew by 65 per cent. Tier I cities’ market share climbed down from 46.4 per cent in 2021 to 37.1 per cent in 2022 whereas Tier III cities’ market share hit 41.5 per cent this year. The data for this report was analysed from about 500 million orders over a span of two years.