KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 — It is evident that the Covid-19 pandemic is causing major changes in people’s shopping behaviour as many turn to online stores.

However, to better understand the shopping behaviour of Malaysians during the movement control order (MCO), e-commerce aggregator iPrice Malaysia recently dug into their data on search activities of their online shoppers.

As a result, the data revealed some unexpected keywords.

The report discovered that online shoppers in Malaysia heavily searched for shaving supplies, sensual toys, exercise equipment and baking appliances — creating record levels of demand.

In a statement, iPrice Malaysia said the research was conducted by analysing the online search behaviour of close to one million visitors on the marketplace between March 18 (when the MCO was first enforced) to April 17.

Based on the data, there was a huge surge in searches for home appliances such as bread makers (7,587 per cent), stand mixers (3,048 per cent), air fryers (2,029 per cent) and ovens (1,058 per cent).

Electronic products such as tablets and laptops also saw 1,125 and 299 per cent search increase respectively.

Exercise equipment including skipping ropes and yoga mats also became top searched items as many people turned to home-workout to stay fit during the MCO.

Sensual toys such as vibrators, fertility test kits and condoms also ranked the top searched items among Malaysians with 347 per cent, 79 per cent and 61 per cent increase respectively in demand during the first two phases of the MCO.

Apart from that, gaming products such as animal crossing, board games and Nintendo switch also dominated the search engine with 17,427 per cent, 4,336 per cent and 1,064 per cent increase.

Health and beauty products also saw a huge demand among online shoppers with the majority of them searching for shaving supplies (trimmers and clippers) as well as masks.