70% rebate floods malls with shoppers

Are Amdavadis optimistic of a turnaround in markets and shaking off their recession fears? The question arises as the biannual sale season that has begun in the city last week has seen potential customers of all economic strata making a beeline to malls and hypermarkets in the city, to cash on the opportunity.  Discount offers, up to 70% off, on apparels and other products in many a shop, not discounting the flat 70% offs which are proving to be great crowd pullers.

Young professional Gini Shah splurged in the discount mela. She bought apparels and accessions - all major international brands - and the quantum of his purchase will sustain her for at least the next six months. “I usually bought branded stuff the whole year through, but for the past two-three years, the new trend of biannual sales has changed my shopping style,” she said.

Stating that all major international brands are offering discounts up to 70%, which means a lot to regular shoppers, Shah added that their group of friends waits for the shopping season during this period as it saves them lot of hard-earned money.

Like Shah there are many other young sensitive buyers in the city who are also impulsive buyers and chances like this gives them the advantage to splurge in branded stuff at cheaper costs.

Not only are the buyers happy, but so are the mall owners and other retailers for whom the retail mela is doing wonders to their businesses. While the season boosts sales, it also revives flagging sentiments in the retail sector. According to experts, for the last couple of months the impact of recession both in the western counties as well as back home made buyers cautious about spending. One of the prime reasons being, that spending capacities had considerably reduced. 

Anshu Mathur, GM of Himalaya mall, said, “For the last week or two the footfalls are increasing sizably in all malls. In June, the total footfall was around 3.5 lakh, whereas in July it was 2.75 lakh, at the last count. This shows that the sentiments are improving in the market.”

Mathur however, added that comparatively malls had better beginning last year and did better business. “This isn’t seem to be happening this season,” he said. This is because of the factory outlet formats, he said, where the buyers have options at discounted rates round the year. This reduces their budget allocation for the ‘sale period’.

Retail experts opine that not only are footfalls improving, but the conversion ratio is also showing positive growth this period.

“We see many youngsters buying branded clothes and accessories nowadays,” said Akashdeep Singh, GM of Iscon Mall, adding that the ‘sale’ in this case has converted many a young window shopper of branded items into potential buyers as discount sales, like these, suits their pockets.

“The Future group is celebrating its annual ceremony and as a result all its division are offering great discounts. This includes all its malls like Big Bazar - the value format and Pantaloons - which focus more on apparels and accessories. However, the value format is doing better business even on the regular format too, and because of the sale season, even Pantaloons is at par in the race. Our mall has noticed increase of around 20% footfalls compared to the last two months, which is definitely a positive sign,” said Indranil Banarji, GM of 10 Acre Mall.

Retail tales
City malls are experiencing huge footfalls for the last week or two.

The rate of conversion of total footfalls is around 40% so far in all malls and the same in stand-alone stores too.

Some of the higher-end brands are offering flat 70% discounts, which is unusual.

Many shoppers wait for the biannual sale period because it saves them a lot of money.

Many people take advantage of the discounts to buy apparels and accessories for the entire year.