Two Weekends Saved Diwali For Electronics Retailer Vijay Sales
Vijay Sales’ Nilesh Gupta expects a 15% rise in Diwali sales.
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Electronics retailer Vijay Sales sold nearly all its products through credit card payments or easy loan schemes this Diwali season.
Cash payments are more or less over in the consumer electronics business, Nilesh Gupta, managing director, told BloombergQuint in an interaction. Ninety percent of the customers bought everything from flat-panel televisions to refrigerators on credit cards or on a monthly installment.
While the first few days of the festive season were slow, schemes with no upfront cash deposits and low EMIs lured customers in the last few days, he said. Another factor leading to improved sales is high gold prices, driving consumers to replace the auspicious metal with gadgets, he said.
Gupta expects sales to grow 15 percent this Diwali compared to the previous year. That comes when the retailers’ body, Confederation of All India Traders, said the sales have slumped 40 percent.
The Indian economy has been grappling with cash shortages and businesses struggling with the Good and Services Tax implementation. Indians fell off the top of Mastercard’s Asia Consumer Confidence Index in the first half of 2017, and a report from the nation’s central bank last week confirmed the bleak outlook. About 27 percent of Indians surveyed said incomes have fallen, pushing overall sentiment into the "pessimistic zone."
Gupta said the company mostly operates in urban parts of the country where credit and debit cards are an easy substitute to cash. He said OLED televisions are leading sales, while demand for smartphones, refrigerators and washing machines has also increased. Air conditioners, on the other hand, are witnessing a slump due to seasonal change.