Stores Offer Discount as Economy Slowsdown

Retail Slowdown in IndiaThe Indian Economic slowdowns is now pinching the pockets of Retailers more than ever. Reliance Retail is all set to position itself as “Value Retailer” to drive footfalls and improve its performance within the next 6 months. Reliance is positioning its Hyper, Super and Convenience stores as discount destinations to attract more customers to its platform.

Provogue in Mumbai had to be satisfied with 20% less sales this Christmas season. Mr. Salil.C of Provogue said,

There was no sing of recovery.The sales for Christmas picked up late in Mumbai. For the rest of India, the sales picked up in the last week.

FabIndia Store Manager, Aneeta Shah said,

The business at pur store has been normal compared to last year. However we were expecting it to be beter. We mainly have two sets of customers – NRIs and Foreigners. We have seen a drop in foreign customers however we see good support from NRIs and locals.

Mr. Punit, Store Manager of Lee, Colaba said

We have seen a drop of 20-25% in sales compared to last year mainly due to recession and lack of tourists due to 26/11 in Mumbai.

Lee is using Gift Voucher route to prmote sales. provogue is offering upto 30% discont on Mens shirts and newly launched body care products. FabIndia added new products like Candles, lanterns, table linen and organic gift hampers. Provogue is planing to offer lot of offers in the month of Jan-09 and is hoping that the new year will bring some respite.