According to a survey conducted by the Retailers Association of India (RAI), retail sales in February 2024 saw a modest 5% increase compared to February 2023 levels.
In specific categories, sports goods saw a 9% increase, followed by footwear at 8% and QSR at 7%, compared to sales levels in February 2023.
“Customers seem to spend cyclically across categories and regions. East of India was showing strong growth for most part of the financial year, but seems to have weakened over the last couple of months. Similarly, CDIT products growth seem to face headwinds in the last quarter while it grew well in the first three quarters,” said Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India (RAI).
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Consumers are adjusting their purchasing patterns across different spending categories, including travel, automobiles, and housing purchases, in addition to the mentioned categories.
“What we also gather is that the middle-class consumers are stretching their budgets, thanks to easy availability of finance and then are recalibrating their expenditure based on EMI outflows,” said Rajagopalan.
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Retail businesses in various regions have reported increased sales compared to February 2023, with the highest growth noted in West and South India at 6% each. North India showed a growth of 4%, while East India saw a more modest growth of only 3%.
Even in January, the growth remained at 5%. Despite the festive season, October and November only saw a growth of 7%, while December experienced a 4% growth, resulting in a sluggish quarter for retailers from October to December.