This Republic Day, shoppers did the marching.
Sales across groceries, consumer electronics and apparel during the Republic Day period rose at their fastest pace in five years, driven by lower prices after the recent GST cut, early wedding shopping and a pickup in demand for mass-segment products, leading companies and retailers said.
While groceries grew in high single digit year-on-year, categories like televisions, washing machines, refrigerators and apparel grew by 15-40%, with mass categories driving a revival in volume sales, industry executives said.
Big Period
“There seems to be an improvement in consumption sentiments,” said chief executive of departmental store chain Lifestyle International. “Republic Day discount and advancement of wedding shopping, as February has 10-12 wedding dates, have also boosted sales.”
Lifestyle has seen a good double-digit growth on-year in sales, led by apparel, particularly women’s wear and high-ticket items, he said.
Vice president at leading biscuits maker Parle Products, Republic Day sales of packaged groceries like biscuits rose 8-9% on-year, led by 12-13% rise in quick commerce. Modern trade sales grew 7-8%, he said.
“This will be the highest sales growth in the last 4-5 years, with GST rationalisation playing a good role to drive consumption by bringing down prices,” he said.
The government in September rationalised the goods and services tax, reducing tax on multiple products from apparel and televisions to daily necessities to improve consumption. The reduction in income tax in last year’s budget has also helped the middle class with higher disposable money.
The Republic Day, along with the Independence Day, is among the second-largest consumption periods in the country after the festive season.
This period is particularly big for electronic companies.
Haier India president said many consumers now wait for the Republic Day sales since they know discounts are good. “Hence a lot of the business is pent-up demand or advancement of purchases,” he said.
Haier and Godrej Appliances reported around 40% on-year growth, while large electronic retail chains like Vijay Sales and Great Eastern Retail said business has surged by up to 28%.
Godrej Appliances business head said while the premium segment drove performance, this year there is recovery in mass segment demand due to weddings.
“For the overall industry sales, mass segment grew by 20% YoY while premium by 45%,” he said.
Different platforms
Ecommerce platforms Flipkart and Amazon ran their Republic Day sales from the second week of January, while quick commerce players like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and JioMart ran their promotion along with modern retail chains.
Ecommerce order volumes during the Republic Day sales period grew 17% on-year while gross merchandise value (GMV) rose 12%, driven by FMCG, agriculture, beauty and wellness, as per Unicommerce, which analysed over 27 million order items processed on its platform.
Quick commerce-led growth with about 25% increase in order volumes, followed by brand-owned websites at 23% while marketplaces continued to process the largest share of orders, it said.
