Festive sales finally bring cheers for retail stores

17/10/2017

NEW DELHI: A shopping blitz in the weekend before Diwali seems to have salvaged the otherwise lacklustre festive season with mall owners and apparel brands witnessing a 15-20 per cent surge in sales over last year in Mumbai, Delhi and elsewhere. Festive season shopping accounts for 40 per cent of annual sales for most retailers.
"This year Diwali has been a slow starter but this weekend has lifted the mood. We have done slightly better than last year and are hoping it will continue till Christmas, New Year and Valentine's Day," said Yogeshwar Sharma, executive director, Select City Walk mall in Delhi, attributing the subdued sales until now to aggressive discounting on ecommerce websites such as Amazon, Flipkart and Paytm. Also, there had been a spurt of buying just ahead of the July 1 rollout of GST.
DLF's Mall of India in the national capital region saw 15-20 per cent growth in footfalls and a similar rise in sales compared with the year-ago period.
"Business has picked up tremendously this weekend and some places have even seen growth of 20-25 per cent ," said Pushpa Bector, head of DLF Shopping Malls.
In Mumbai, malls saw growth of 10-15 per cent in footfalls. "It finally feels like Diwali," said Rajendra Kalkar, president, west, at Phoenix Mills, which saw footfalls of 70,000-80,000 this weekend.
It would appear that consumption has made a strong return after the disruption caused by last November's demonetisation and GST, encouraged by the festive spirit. Among the biggest beneficiaries have been Indian apparel brands as consumers also make purchases for the wedding season, which comes just after Diwali.
Siddharth Bindra, managing director of ethnic wear brand Biba, said the overall market is still slower than usual but this weekend had been a good one. His company saw sales shooting up 45 per cent over the weekend before Diwali last year. "We see a lot of customers for everyone in the market this weekend," Bindra said.
Abhishek Ganguly, MD of Puma in India, said his company had been "struggling" on the sales front ever since the GST was put in place in July. "This week we have done our best week since GST. This week our like-to-like growth over last year is 29 per cent ," Ganguly said, adding that sales on Saturday were more than 40 per cent higher than the Saturday a week before. "Fingers crossed, things are looking very positive suddenly."
Categories that saw growth include gifts, accessories such as bags and jewellery and western wear with a bit of bling, according to Bector.
The festive season, which starts with Ganesh Chaturthi and Onam, peaks at Diwali.
The spurt has come too late for some though.
The head of an ethnic brand said this Diwali has been far more muted compared with last year.
"Saturday was a better day but still it hasn't been a full Diwali for us this year," he said. "Now only three days are left for Diwali."

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