Over the past 6-8 months, most companies have been either slashing price tags or offering steep discounts to clear unsold inventory after price increases across all apparel categories last year.
“Retailers had anticipated double-digit sales growth during the Puja and Diwali season in October and November 2023 however, the sales growth has been muted for many retailers. Most retailers have indicated that the footfalls were not even equal to 2022 though the sales were just about the same as previous year,” said Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India (RAI).
Retail businesses across regions have indicated growth in sales as compared to October and November 2022 sales level with East India signaling a growth of 11%, while South India indicated a growth of 7% followed by North India and West India signalling a growth of 6% and 5% respectively.
“Many retailers, especially in the apparel category, only grew over last year because of new store openings and online sales. While like-for-like store business was negative in more than 50% of the retailers surveyed. Retailers did witness a growth in high value products,” said Rajagopalan.
Jewellery business grew on the back of higher gold prices and the demand in the latter part of November thanks to the wedding season. However, business for low value products saw a quantitative dip. Retailers are pinning their hopes on the wedding season, occasion wear business and end of season sale in coming two months.In categories, jewellery reported a growth of 13% followed by Sports Goods (11%) and footwear (10%). Consumer durable and IT products saw a growth of 9% due to higher consumer finance schemes as compared to the sales levels in October and November 2022.
