Pharmacies dominate 85% of online searches, vaccination centres shoot up by 16X: Just Dial

Mumbai: Online searches for local pharmacies dominated almost 85% of the searches on Just Dial in the health category while that for vaccination centres went up by 16X across the country’s 1000 towns and cities as India battles the third wave of COVID, reports the latest Just Dial Consumer Insights.

As India surpassed the daily tally of 1 lakh COVID cases, pharmacies, vaccination centres, ambulances, COVID test centres, and oxygen cylinders remained the five most searched health categories on Just Dial, India’s No.1 local search engine. YOY demand for all searches in the health categories grew by 19% during the quarter ending December 2021.

With pharmacies dominating majority of the searches, the YOY growth rate for searches around pharmacy stood at 15%. This demand remained stable in Tier-I markets while in Tier-II markets, it grew by 37%. Among Tier-I cities, Delhi, and Mumbai, the two worst affected metros due the third wave, contributed to around 56% of the online searches for pharmacies. Bangalore (46%), Pune (42%), and Hyderabad (27%) were the three cities that saw maximum demand growth rate. Among Tier-II towns and cities, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Nashik, and Patna were the top-5 cities generating maximum demand.

Commenting on the trend, Mr. Prasun Kumar, CMO, Just Dial, said: “As the country witnesses another wave of COVID, we are trying to offer our users credible information for a wide range of health services. This will ensure that people don’t step out for essential health services that are just a call away. We have been successful in aggregating neighborhood pharmacies online and a host of other services such as test centres, vaccination centres, oxygen services and ambulances services.  While Tier-I cities have traditionally remained ahead in adoption of these services online, Tier-II towns are also catching up in a big way and this is encouraging in terms of showcasing India’s overall digital adoption and agility.”

Mumbai and Delhi are witnessing maximum demand for vaccination centres. Searches originating from the two cities comprise around 53% of the demand from Tier-I cities. Jaipur, Patna, Chandigarh, Vadodara, and Nagpur were the top 5 Tier-I cities that saw maximum searches for vaccination centres.

Searches for ambulance services remained stable across India. Among Tier-I cities, Delhi accounted for maximum searches and along with Mumbai contributed to almost 45% of the searches. Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna, Coimbatore, and Nagpur were the top 5 Tier-II cities with maximum searches.

Searches for COVID test centres grew by 47% pan-India. The demand growth rate in Tier-II cities was almost 2.5X of Tier-I. Among Tier-I cities, Chennai, Pune, and Mumbai were the top 3 generating maximum searches and Coimbatore, Mysore, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, and Nagpur were the top-5 cities in Tier-II.

For oxygen cylinders, Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore were the top-3 Tier-I cities that saw maximum demand. Lucknow, Coimbatore, Patna, Jaipur, and Chandigarh were the top 5 cities that saw maximum traction among Tier-II cities.