July 6th, 2017: The happiest day of the year, World Chocolate Day, is just around the corner (July 7th, 2017), and to celebrate India’s love for its favourite indulgence, Swiggy, the country’s leading food ordering and delivery platform studied India’s online chocolate items consumption patterns.
It is a known fact that we Indians love sweet. However, order analysis from Swiggy shows that we are particularly partial towards desserts made of chocolate. Research also suggests that the amount of chocolate sold in India ballooned by 13% in 2016 partly because of the growing disposable income and young population's taste for indulgence.Almost half of all dessert orders placed online (on Swiggy) are made of chocolate. In fact, 60 % of the top orders for dessert on the platform are chocolate based.
Mondays aren’t the only day Indians order chocolate items to drive away the blues. According to Swiggy’s analysis, India’s Love for chocolate items’ is consistent no matter what day of the week it is.
* Swiggy has over 70,000 chocolate items on its menu to satiate India’s craving for chocolate
* Most ordered chocolate items in India: Death by Chocolate, Hot Chocolate Fudge, Chocolate Milkshake, Chocolate Brownie and Chocolate Truffle Pastry
* Women are 25% more likely to order chocolate items online
* Those in the age group of 18-24 order more chocolate items online
* Mumbai tend to order the most chocolate items online, this is followed by Bangalore and Hyderabad
* Bangalore spends the most on chocolate itemsfollowed by Hyderabad and Mumbai
* Indians tend to order most chocolate items late in the night followed by snacks. This is especially true during the weekends
* Indians cannot get enough of chocolate: Indians have ordered the likes of chocolate momo, chocolate pizza sandwich, chocolate grilled sandwich and chocolate toast online!
Chocolate Cravings:
Perhaps suggesting that most chocolate cravings seem to strikenear midnight, chocolate items are most ordered late in the night, with the average ordering time being 11:46 pm. This is followed by orders during snacks, dinner (avg time 8:50 pm), lunch and breakfast.
The Swiggy analysis suggests that while chocolates items are enjoyed throughout the day, chocolate cookie and chocolate pastries form a part of the morning orders.
Celebrating Occasions with Chocolate:
Chocolate connects strongly to sweet consumption behaviour and occasions in India. Most happy occasions tend to be collective, and are ritually accompanied by sharing something sweet.Not surprisingly, on Valentine’s Day alone, orders for chocolate items grew disproportionally (compared to other categories) by almost 50% compared to the average Tuesday. A similar trend was seen with respect with Mother’s Day and Father’s Day this year, where the orders had increased by 19% and 40% respectively than a regular Sunday.
Note: The above findings are derived from Swiggy’s order analysis for the last six months (Jan – June 2017)
