Retailers gear up for post-season festive demand

Spree for clothes ends, the next big thing is accessories like bags, watches and small gifts as Eid and Raksha Bandhan arrive

The end-of-season sale has seen an apparel fever that went viral in the city. As the sale nears its end, retailers are now expecting accessories like bags, watches and small gifts to pick up with the arrival of festive season. With Eid and Raksha Bandhan around the corner, retailers say that they have new needs to cater to. Other strategies to woo shoppers in the post season sale period would be the said-and-known promos, freebies, gift vouchers, gift cards.

The city would soon be over with the shopping spree as August would mark the end of season sale for most brands. But the silver lining is the festivities like Eid and Raksha Bandhan, which retailers expect would help them in the lull period post end of season sale. “It’s the non-apparels like watches, bags and gifts that will pick up pre-Eid and Raksha Bandhan. We noticed an 18-20% increase last year for these products. The highest selling category was shoes & bags followed by watches & jewellery”, said Ishita Yashvi, Assistant General Manager, Marketing at DLF Prominad.

Although festivities are expected to boost sales retailers are keeping their fingers crossed. “The sale during the festive periods is unpredictable and if it’s a long weekend, it could drive people to enjoy and shop, but could also induce the prospective customers to opt for a mini holiday,” said Ishaan Sachdeva, Director, Alberto Torresi. Sachdeva further explains that the retailers and brands keep tap on the actual days on which these festivities fall to strategize their plans. Retailers expect that an exclusive short term promo or impromptu heavy discount would usually push the sale up. The retailers on their part are also keeping the shops open for longer than usual hours in the pre Eid period.

As for the apparel, industry insiders argue that is not expected to pick up before October or start of November. This is because of the change in the season and the short period of autumn when people don’t really pick clothes for winter or summer. This will be followed by the dip of fifteen days which happens during Shraad before Dushehra when Hindus don’t buy expensive jewellery, food takes hit as most non-vegetarians refrain from consuming meat. Such times accessories are what shoppers usually pick. The shops are also expected to soon be up with their new merchandise.

Alistair Gordon, Founder and Managing Director of Value Access that provides loyalty and Customer Relation Management programs to brands like Benetton, Pizza Hut, Baskin Robbins argues that the objective to have ‘more sales, more customers and more money’ continues irrespective of any time of the year. Many brands have started aggressively using customer loyalty programs, gift cards, promotional vouchers post the end of season sale. “I expect Indian to respond much better than West to these programs because in India if customers feel that they have got a special deal that nobody else has, they tend to become brand loyal”, added Gordon.

This end of season’s sale has been a pleasant surprise for most of the brands keeping the economic gloom and apprehensions about low consumer spending in mind. With increased footfalls and higher conversion rates, most of the brands have registered 30-40 per cent increase in their sale.