In a significant shift in consumer behaviour, ecommerce purchases of televisions, air-conditioners and microwave ovens helped the industry tide over the decline in sales at brick-and-mortar stores last year with online accounting for 9-30% of their overall category sales. This comes as a surprise, considering none of the big companies thought consumers would buy a TV or washing machine without the touch-and-feel experience of the product in the store. Online volume sales grew 50-60% last year over the previous. Online sales accounted for 20% of flat panel television sales volume in 2018, 30% convection microwave ovens, 10% of washing machines and 9% air-conditioners. For refrigerators, e-commerce accounted for around 5% of total sales. Online sales account for 35% of total Indian sales volume of smartphones. Online channel has registered significant growth in 2018 across categories in this sector and is now being viewed by players as one of the important channels to operate in the market.