With Amazon and Flipkart competing for $4.8 billion in festive sales, malls and retail stores have witnessed a massive stride and can lose up to 30 per cent of their sales in the coming days. Even though the India economy is battling an economic slowdown, it is estimated that online retailers wil generate around $4.8 billion of revenue from September 25 to October 29 in lieu of festive sales.
As per a report by the global market research firm Forrester, he major portion of this revenue is expected to be raised between September 29 and October 4- the time period in which Amazon and Flipkart have organised their ‘Great indian festive’ and ‘Big Billion Days’ sales.
Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General of Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said that the offline retail sales are affected by the ongoing online sales since last 3-4 days and their purchase rate has dropped by 30 per cent.Khandelwal said, “The discounts they are offering are unbelievable, which is even lower than the lending cost. The customer who are supposed to come to the market have diverted to the online market.”
As per a data, 74 per cent of Indians online buyers tend to research about their product online before going them out to purchase. “The influence of digital on offline purchases will be the key area of brand investment in the near future in India,” said Satish Meena, Senior Forecast Analyst at Forrester.
Be it utensils, garments or furnishing items and vehicles; during the festive season, people tend to shop a lot more than what they do on a routinely basis leading to a rise in the sales figure. But due to the online deep discounted sales the business of offline retail stor has been affected adversely.
Last month, the CAIT sent a letter to Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal urging him to introduce a ‘blanket ban’ on the festive sales that are conducted by these e-commerce giants. “By offering deep discounts ranging from 10 per cent to 80 per cent on their e-commerce portals, these companies are clearly influencing the prices and create an uneven level playing field which is in direct contravention of the policy,” the letter read.
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