Despite The Plunge In Rupee, Festival Season Sales To Remain Unfazed

We live in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) world today where chaos is the name of the game. The slightest upheaval or fluctuation in global markets or in the rupee has the potential for the investors to go home with nothing. However, despite the plunging rupee and substantially high price of fuel, the festive season sales this year are expected to be considerably better, given that Rs 400 crore have already been consumed on advertising by the ecommerce giants by way of gearing up for the sales bonanza.

As opposed to the tepid sales witnessed last year, which were a combined result of note ban and introduction of GST, the consumer sentiment this time round has received a much-needed boost from the uptick in GDP over the last quarter and easily available consumer finance.

The low cost or no cost EMI options along with advertisements in local languages, which have now become available across the length and breadth of the Indian retail, have acted as an impetus for the rise in demand from tier 2 and tier 3 markets. This further creates a new bastion of demand, especially for the e-tailers or online retailers. For instance, last year, the five days pre-festive shopping sales period witnessed online sales growth of 40 % year-on-year (YoY) to reach a gross GMV of $1.5 billion and the two e-commerce giants together accounted for 80% of the total festive season sales. Interestingly, electronics and appliances emerged to be the most popular category during this period. 

Evidently, e-commerce platforms have been continuously making efforts to adapt to the specifics of what people living in the hinterland of India are looking for. This has pushed them to tweak business models, extend and improvise on the logistical and supply chain front. 

Therefore, who are the key consumers who layout the trends? It is the millennials or the young consumer groups who are at the helm of driving changes in consumer shopping journeys and trends. Therefore, to engage with these new-age shoppers, retailers are creating personalised retail experiences using data analytics and immersive technologies to drive sales through social commerce channels -  63% millennials stay updated on brands through social media; 28% millennials purchase products due to social media recommendations. This is pushing retailers across the online offline spectrum to breach the walls of retailtainment or retail supplemented by entertainment to create personalised purchase experiences.