Festive Season Delivers Booster Shot to Consumer Goods Industry
By: Ashwathy Nair
- Signs that indicate the beginning of a recovery in the economy and consumer confidence.
- Pent-up demand with weak sales in the preceding months has also added to rush.
- Strong customer demand is witnessed across key markets like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Gujarat.
The festive season has delivered some much-needed booster shots to the COVID-hit consumer goods industry, with retail sales in the period of 10 days Navratri to Dussehra. It not only topped last year’s numbers but also registered strong double-digit growth. It seems that the signs indicate the beginning of a recovery in the economy and confidence of the consumer.
As Diwali is arriving, there is a hope of a positive start to “one of the most critical sales periods” in companies like Maruti, Hyundai, Samsung, LG, Sony, and also, luxury retailers like Dyson and Mercedes-Benz.
Festive offers have arrived and a large number of new launches from companies that are left with low inventory in many cases.
In the automobile industry, the demand was most tangible that it had contracted 18% last fiscal. In the period of 10 days, Maruti has retailed a massive 95,000 units that not only by creating a record during such difficult times but have even registered over 20% growth over last year.
The Korean duo that is part of the same business group has also seen equally strong demand from Maruti’s rivals including Hyundai and Kia. As Kia Motors recently has added a new model (the Sonet mini SUV) to its line-up, the numbers got exceptionally high (over 200% at retail of over 11,000 units).
MD and CEO of Mercedes-Benz India, Martin Schwenk said that “In key markets such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Gujarat, which saw a revival in customer demand, due to the return of normalcy and stabilization of companies and the ability to unlock expectations, strong customer demand has been seen. On a very strong note, the festive season has begun, and the confidence of the consumer is even more pronounced in the sense of today’s market conditions, which face several challenges”.
Two-wheeler companies, electronics, smartphones etc. has also witnessed exceptional growth and increase in demand.
