Retailers clocked moderate sales growth of 6 per cent in April 2023, compared to April 2022, largely due to high base effect, according to the latest survey findings released by the Retailers Association of India (RAI). This growth was led by categories of quick service restaurant and food and grocery segments.
Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India (RAI), said: “Retailers witnessed a modest growth of 6 per cent in April 2023. This is possibly explained because they had a super growth of 23 per cent in April 2022, compared to pre-pandemic period (April 2019) and 41 per cent growth when compared to sales level in April 2021 (y-o-y).
“While the growth of 6 per cent in April 2023 vis-à-vis April 2022 is welcome, we will still have to see if the growth can get into double-digits in the coming months,” he added.
In terms of regions, retail businesses in East and South India clocked a growth of 7 per cent each. Meanwhile, retailers in West India and North India clocked a sales growth of 6 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively.
Categories
In terms of categories, the Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) segment reported a growth of 16 per cent, followed by Food & Grocery (15 per cent), compared to sales levels in April 2022. “While furniture and furnishings, and consumer durables and electronics (CDIT) showed a growth of 14 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively, compared to sales levels in April 2022,” RAI stated.
Categories, including sports goods ( per cent), apparel and clothing (4 per cent), footwear (2 per cent) and jewellery (1 per cent), clocked sales growth in low single-digits, the survey added.
Earlier this month, the RAI had stated that in FY23 retail businesses had reported growth of 34 per cent, compared to FY22.