FMCG: Shipments are going up while retail offtake is slowing, says Nielsen

While company shipments are going up, actual retail offtake is slowing, says Nielsen, pointing to consumer fatigue. Is this cause for concern?

After clocking a blistering 13.8 per cent in terms of growth rate for calendar year 2017, India's $50-billion (or Rs 3.25 trillion) consumer goods market appears to be slowing as far as retail offtake goes. The latter is industry parlance for actual sales growth seen in stores. This is tracked closely by Nielsen through its  retail audit of various categories.
 
Retail or consumer offtake, say experts, is considered a more accurate barometer of the health of the market vis-a-vis company shipments. The latter are basically goods pushed by firms into trade  channels and do not necessarily reflect actual sales