India is the fifth largest and favorite retail destination globally. The country’s ranking is among the highest in the world in terms of retail store availability per capita. Despite this, retail has had a particularly terrible year in 2020 due to the pandemic. However, consumers in Tier II and Tier III cities have generated phenomenal growth for retailers in 2021.
According to industry estimates, Appliances saw a 5-8% increase in volume in August, driven by sales during Ganesh Chaturthi and Durga Puja, with companies launching early promotional offers.
Retail sales in October 2021 increased by 34% compared to the same month in 2020, according to the Retailers Association of India (RAI), showing a positive trend after a long period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 was clearly better than the year 2020. When it comes to consumers, the Confederation of All Indian Shopkeepers (CAIT) said individuals across India spent Rs 1.25 trillion on Diwali shopping , surpassing a 10-year record. The festive season alone generated about Rs 25,000 crore in income in Delhi.
Two main factors have led to a surge in the retail industry. The first is that the government has been carrying out mass vaccination campaigns across the country, through which India has crossed 100 crore doses of vaccination against COVID-19, declaring that people are safer and shopping. . Second, due to the severe retail downturn in 2020, various digital solutions have been provided to local retailers during the pandemic. It was primarily intended to help them move their stores online and sell from anywhere with minimal technicality. These technological solutions have been extremely beneficial for the retail industry in 2021.
According to research from Tech.co, 80% of small business owners think COVID-19 had a negative effect on their business in 2020. That’s no surprise. However, as a result of unlocking and vaccination campaigns, people made more purchases in 2021 than in 2020. Local sellers had a completely unknown situation in 2021 since they had access to the latest technologies, which included some apps and platforms that allowed them to take their online stores to sell their items, along with easy payment processing and reliable delivery options. As a result, customers spent more money on purchases this year than last year. We spoke to a few local retailers. Let’s see what they had to say.
“The previous year, I was unable to open my shop due to dire circumstances, but my family managed to survive. It was hard for us to accept that things would continue to be the same as the year but we are back and doing well this year, people are flocking to buy necessities, and the festive season, by the grace of God, went off without a hitch,” Sunil Kumar said. , owner of a local grocery store.
“Last year I left my store because I had to pay the rent even though the shutter was down, which was very difficult for me because it takes a lot of effort to start over. This year has been like magic since the beginning. So I started to get a good number of customers and somehow things got back on track. Speaking of the holiday season, my products are selling more than expected,” said Reeta, a dairy owner.
After speaking with these local sellers, we observed that things were worse in 2020, but in 2021 things exceeded their expectations much better than the year before. Their businesses are now expected to perform well and grow in the coming days as sellers now have the technology tools to bring their businesses online and sell them. They no longer need to worry as they can now sell from anywhere eliminating the need for a physical store. For this successful retail year, sellers worked extremely hard and met the ever-changing standards of customer experience.
