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Shopaholics have a reason to cheer. Most retailers which reported lacklustre sales after Diwali and Christmas have announced early discounts to shore up revenues.
Retailers have also begun to take note of online sales channels as heavy discounts offered by e-commerce players have hit brick-and-mortar sales.
But for deal-tracking consumers in top eight cities at least, sales are when they make the best buy. For retailers, this spells a contribution of about 35-45 per cent of the revenue. Ideally, there are two sales period in the year — July-August and January-February.
Anurag Rajpal, CEO, American Swan, a lifestyle brand, notes: “The advent of several brands has caused steep competition in the market. Consumer demand has not kept pace with the supply. As a result, brands have to declare early sales.”
Heavy discounts by e-commerce players are also causing mayhem in the market. “Everybody has to show sales numbers and they are under tremendous pressure. To do this, they have got into the volume game in which discounting helps.”
Industry experts also say a decade back, full price used to contribute about 70 per cent. However, in the past couple of years, nearly 50 per cent of sales come during the discount period or marked-down prices.
Harkirat Singh, Managing Director, Woodland, says, “Consumers’ response to sale is always good. We are expecting 30-40 per cent revenue during the sale period.” Woodland had announced its sale in the last week of December itself to attract buyers. He said the sale period may go on for next 45-odd days and even as the company adds fresh stock along with the discounted ones.
Fresh stock Additionally, companies also introduce new stock. Abhishek Bansal, Executive Director, Pacific Mall, said customer walk-ins are high during the sale period and there is a chance some of them will go for good fresh stock on offer. Incidentally, during the sale period, malls have an upper hand as ticket size goes up. “We promote best schemes and offers during the discount period.”
Ankur Bisen, V-P, Retail, Technopak, notes it is still early to predict the sales numbers for brick-and-mortar retailers. “Even e-commerce firms have started to declare end-of-season sales to capture the consumer’s attention,” he added.
Rachna Nath, Leader Retail & Consumer, PwC India, said in the consulting firm’s retail outlook report, “The Indian retail experience has gone beyond the traditional brick-and-mortar store and includes numerous touch points such as online stores, social networks, call centres. Changing economic dynamics, diverse choices in products and services, numerous shopping formats and unparalleled access to information has empowered customers to expect more from their retail experience.”
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