Despite the inauspicious shraadh period, apparels and lifestyle retailers as well as malls have been witnessing a record growth in sales in the past few weeks.
And now they are expecting demand at a decadal high during the festive season starting with Navratri next week.
Devarajan Iyer, Chief Executive of Lifestyle International, says “The demand that we are currently seeing is the highest ever since we entered the country and a host of factors, including positive consumer sentiment and fresh merchandise, are driving sales. We expect festive season sales to be a bumper one this year with strong double-digit growth despite no discounting.”
Leading business daily The Economic Times reported that the mall operators have attributed the surge to this being the first normal festive period after two years of pandemic.
According to a survey by the Retailers Association of India (RAI), retail businesses across India reported a growth of 15 per cent in sales in August compared with pre-pandemic levels (August 2019).
Pushpa Bector, ED, DLF Retail, said “About 10 per cent of our portfolio is under fit-out and will get operational with the start of festive season. Usually, this number is 3-4 per cent and this year brands have extra energy as after two years, they are getting the opportunity to attract customers. We are hoping to do the best ever sale and footfalls are also expected to reach record high.”
DLF Retail operates premium malls across Delhi-NCR.
Satyen Momaya, CEO, Celio, a French apparel brand, said “There has been a strong run-up right from Onam to Durga Puja. In fact, we had to reduce discounting this time as the demand for full-priced merchandise remained robust. Urban consumers are clearly buying discretionary products without any stress on inflation while we see slight slowdown in value or mass-priced products in non-metros and rural.”
