Buoyant consumer product sales expected this festival season

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Sales of consumer products are likely to be buoyant this year if the trend in September sales is any indication, says a media report. After recording a drop in August, sales of consumer products, including smartphones, improved sequentially in September, raising corporate expectations of buoyant festive season demand, The Economic Times reported.

Sales of groceries and essentials grew over 1% in September, according to Bizom, which tracks 7.5 million retail stores across the country. The same in August had fallen 14.5%, it added.

As per Bizom, FMCG sales grew 29.7% y-o-y. For appliances, the sales volume growth has been 2-3%, the industry estimates.

Volume growth for smartphones is 4-5%. Value growth (y-o-y) for electronics and smartphones will be higher in September on account of a 10-15% price hike, the report said.

The industry has estimated 5-8% growth in home appliances compared to August sales, driven by sales during Ganesh Chaturthi and Durga Puja shopping.

Fear of supply-chain

“Consumers fear that there could be supply-chain disruptions or stock out of these essentials and would rather load their pantry early, which also could result in November witnessing a slowdown,” Angshu Mallick, chief executive of Adani Wilmar, is quoted as saying in the news report.

Festive season sales

The report quoting CEOs said consumers are waiting for the big festive period sales in October. E-commerce majors Amazon and Flipkart are gearing up for their annual sales events which will start this weekend. Despite price hikes in electronics, laptops and smartphones, all indicators are positive for good sales over the next two months, the CEOs said.

“Consumer sentiment, macroeconomic indicators are good, so are Covid indicators led by high vaccinations, low infection rate. The chances of the third wave impacting the economy are low. Hence, the recovery in September bodes well for the festive season,” the news report quotes Kamal Nandi, business head at Godrej Appliances, as saying.

Growth in value was more than that in volume in September, said Deepak Bansal, vice president of corporate planning, LG Electronics, India’s largest white goods manufacturer. “On a year-on-year basis, we grew sales by 10% led by more premium products and price hikes,” he said.