The lanes, by-lanes and hi-streets of Chennai are once again glowing as bright lights, decorated shops and malls beckon customers. The swag in retail is back.

So far, the retail offtake has been good. “October has been a reasonable month so far. By November mid, we will get more clarity on the numbers, but last month’s business results show that we have almost reached pre-COVID levels,” said Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, RAI as he sought to make light of the 3 per cent lesser growth seen as compared to the pre-pandemic period.

Rather than revenge buying, it is “cheer shopping that is keeping us going. The opportunity to meet friends, relatives and celebrate the festive season (of whatever is left this year), has brought all-round happiness. We may not see big crowds but the overall sentiment is positive,” he said, adding the middle-class mindset of saving would help to buoy retail sales.

Those who do not have too much money on hand can now bank on consumer credit as the mood is much better now, Rajagopalan said.

Retailers are confident of seeing a 10 to 15 per cent surge in their business and physical shopping at the moment may be a bit challenging considering the social distancing norms and other protocols still in place to ensure the well-being of the people, shoppers are keeping retailers busy. “The lines between offline and online shopping have blurred. The emergence of omnichannel has added a new dimension to retail. Customers are in the discovery phase of shopping as they can blend e-commerce and physical purchase well. They do all the exploration online and many end up buying at the store,” he said.

Though the footfall is at 70 per cent, the swell in business is 100 per cent. “Basket size has gone up with browsing at home giving customers a more confident stride to buy,” he added.

An optimistic Rajagopalan also said only 2 to 3 per cent of the retailers had been hit across the country.

“Those who have independent or owned facilities have survived while the impacted ones are largely retailers operating out of leased premises.” Jayantilal Challani, a veteran of 50-plus years of being in the jewellery business, is extremely upbeat.

“Customer footfall has seen a surge. Not only the metro, but across Tamil Nadu including tier I and tier II regions, retail has picked up. That the rate of gold has also seen a reduction has also contributed to boosting jewellery sales,” he said, adding the “huge” bonus given by employers such as the Railways, have also assisted in building buyers’ confidence.

Considering the “conservative” mindset of the people in this part of the country, he said savings is a priority and therefore investment in the yellow metal is a natural choice for customers. “Interestingly, cash sales which used to be the bulk of the payment mode has been replaced by credit card and digital payments, that now constitute 60 per cent of the transactions,” Challani seeks to point out.

Lightweight, temple jewellery is fast-moving while antique, especially silver articles have seen an uptick. “The appetite of buyers is changing. Regular designs have reached saturation but since new designs are trendy and classy, they are more interested in such items,” he said, observing that family shopping remains the norm with middle-aged customers thronging the retail outlets.

Chennai has 6,500-plus jewellery entities, covering big, medium and others. Of these, 5 per cent are big and essentially large chain stores which are in the volume business while 20 per cent are medium having multiple outlets. “Asia’s highest concentration of chain stores is in the city with Usman Road, Sowcarpet earning the distinction of being the jewellery hubs,” he pointed out.

Corporate gifting too has seen a pickup with many companies choosing to gift “cards” as a bonus to their staff. This enables brands like Tanishq to flourish.

Jewellery retailers, according to him, have not shut shop owing to the pandemic but only seen “income loss” as their customers did not have the opportunity to visit their showrooms to conclude their purchases.

GRT’s MD GR ‘Ananth’ Anathapadmanabhan said immediately after the lockdown, customers had started to throng the retail outlets. “The sentiment is positive and we are more than confident of having a fantastic Deepavali. For us, in particular, patronage has been encouraging.” He also added that the shopping seemed even more “promising” in tier II, III locations than the metro. “Acceptance to digital space appears to be more pronounced in such regions. While both online and offline sales are positive, our experience shows that urban and rural sales are faring well,” he said, noting that it had rolled out several offers to woo customers, especially during the ‘festival of lights’ time.