Revenge buying in August pushes retail sales in double digits — all eyes on Diwali
Retailers are anticipating a good festive season around Diwali after the retail sales in July-August came 17 percent higher on YoY basis.
After strong revenge shopping trends seen in July-August 2022, retailers are eyeing the festive season, particularly Diwali to drive sales. The retail sales in August - a month that marks the onset of the festive season with Ganesh Chaturthi - are encouraging with data showing a 17 percent year-on-year (YoY) rise. For western India, retail sales are up 24 percent
That said, the data from the Retailers Association of India indicates two woes: first, sales of luxury items such as sports goods, jewellery and footwear have done better than say groceries and two, August 2022 sales are just 15 percent above the 2019 levels. In other words, revenge shopping is not enough to make up for the lost two years during the pandemic.
Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO of Retailers Association of India calls buying in the last two months as "cheer buying" rather than "revenge buying."
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“Till the month of July, we had seen that buying was happening across all price points and that was encouraging. I would not call it revenge buying. I would call it cheer buying, but the fact is that people were buying for various occasions and buying was happening across. In the month of August, we have seen sales for the entry price point across categories, be it garments, footwear, electronics,” Rajagopalan told CNBC-TV18.
He added that demand in eastern India has seen a pick-up. In fact, has grown 19 percent over pre-COVID levels.
Meanwhile, Gupta said, “We are very bullish, at least in consumer durable that we should be seeing a very good Diwali. September is not going to be a very key month to be observed for consumers because the Pitru Paksha (a 16–lunar day period in the Hindu calendar when Hindus pay homage to their ancestors, especially through food offerings) starts and people still have a tendency of not to buy during this month although it is not as strong as what it used to be earlier.”
For the entire discussion, watch the accompanying video
First Published: Sept 14, 2022 5:08 PM IST
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