As year ends, apparel retailers flash sale signs to lure buyers
Given the delayed winter, many retailers have now started discounting early to attract shoppers. Retail sales in October and November 2023 showed a growth of 7% compared to the sales levels during the same period in 2022, according to the survey by the Retailers Association of India (RAI).
«The last two-three months have seen muted growth despite being the festive season and the way things are going, we don't expect any major uptick in demand for the next two quarters.
Peak winter has not set in which has impacted the sales and we hope by June onwards, there will be some positive movements in demand,» said Devarajan Iyer, chief executive of department store chain Lifestyle International.
The fashion retail segment has been struggling with a demand slowdown since January this year due to inflationary headwinds.
The overall growth slowed down to 6% in both March and April, according to the RAI, indicating the slowest sales expansion in more than 14 months and increasing marginally to 9% in August and September.
«In comparison with the last festive season, this festive season has been muted. This has forced us to rethink the store expansion strategy,» said Lalit Agarwal, chairman of hypermarket chain V-Mart.
ET visited stores of brands like Marks N Spencer and Lifestyle, who agreed that festive sales were low this year.
Allen Solly said the growth is not much, whereas Shoppers Stop at a prominent mall said that the footfall in the malls was low but was higher in the local markets.
Due to the low festive sales, brands like Pantaloons have high hopes for winter sales. H&M said that the reason behind the delayed winter sales in their brand is also the long Black Friday sales.
«Retailers had anticipated double-digit
