Festive Season: Vijay Sales Says Footfalls Rising, Croma Expects ‘Pent-Up Demand’
During the festive season, Vijay Sales expects to meet the sales growth of 8-10 percent, which was seen last year.
The festive season has begun on a good note for consumer durable retailers at a time Indians are consuming less in a slowing economy.
“This year Ganesh Chaturthi has been reasonably good and whatever (sales demand) we have seen last week is a positive sign,” said Nilesh Gupta, managing partner at electronics retailer Vijay Sales. “Customer enquiries have gone up, footfalls are increasing and sales are happening,” he told BloombergQuint in an interview.
Agreed Ritesh Ghoshal, chief marketing officer at Croma-Infiniti Retail Ltd. The festive season has begun “well” for the electronics retail chain of the Tata group, led by higher demand in entry-level laptops and smartphones, Ghoshal said. There should be “a lot of pent-up demand as retailing days were lost due to rains and the overall consumer sentiment remained extremely soft in the July-August period”, according to him. Ghoshal, however, said the demand for high-end models of smartphones and televisions was “held back”.
This comes even as Indians are spending less on biscuits and shampoos to two-wheelers and cars as the economy grows at its weakest pace in six years. A sharp pullback in rural spending also added to the woes.
During the festive season, Vijay Sales expects to meet the sales growth of 8-10 percent, which was seen last year. “It will be a bonanza if we beat that,” said Gupta.
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