When Future Group started celebrating Independence Day at its stores seven years ago, it never thought the occasion-led sale campaign would be such a success.
Public holiday sales now contribute six to seven times more than other festival days, with a substantial amount recorded in smaller towns.
The Kishore Biyani-led group, which runs departmental stores such as Big Bazaar and eZone, has introduced the ‘freedom sale’ campaign in 16 new stores, all in small towns such as Jorhat and Agartala, this year.
Similarly, on the radar of other big box retailers such as Croma and Spencer’s are smaller towns such as Haridwar, Dehradun, Ahmednagar, Kozhikode, Allahabad, Gorakhpur and Varanasi.
Several malls in these places have reported a 20-30 per cent rise in footfall largely driven by categories such as apparel, cosmetics, electronics (kitchen appliances) and footwear.
Driven by upgrades
Kolkata-based Spencer’s has witnessed a 5-6 per cent increase in consumers visiting its stores.
Akshay Mehrotra, Chief Marketing Officer, Big Bazaar, said: “We are getting a very good response. For them, it is not just buying grocery for two-three months during the sale, but also upgrading to new product categories. People are buying more home furnishing items than food during the sale period.”
He added that it was the group’s strategy to introduce new ranges (which are not on sale) during the sale period, as they expect more footfall than usual.
Anand Sundaram, CEO, Pioneer Property Zone, a mall management company which also manages Pacific Mall in Delhi as well as Dehradun, said that over the last two years, the number of visitors had increased about 50 per cent on August 15.
“We are expecting consumption for all retailers to spike by approximately 27 per cent during these days in a town like Dehradhun. The consumption level is comparable to a metro,” he added.
According to Abneesh Roy, Associate Director, Edelweiss Securities, “Retail is all about discretionary spending. Indians, by and large, are value-conscious and in tier-2 and -3 towns, we assume they get excited by the offers.”
Discounts, a draw
Heavy discounting followed by advertising is driving sales in these towns.
Tata Group’s Infinity Retail, which runs consumer durables and IT chain Croma, said it had focused on outdoor, digital and on-ground media for its national campaigns.
Retailers also attribute increased consumption to rising income and demand for aspirational products.
Big Bazaar’s Mehrotra, citing a few examples, said a housewife would prefer plastic and ceramic containers instead of steel, or would prefer to upgrade from a broom to a mop.
Young girls are also found to be buying more coloured denims, a phenomenon not seen in these towns a few years ago.
Ramchandra Agarwal, founder of the erstwhile Vishal Retail and promoter of V2 Retail, said the response from smaller towns, particularly for ‘created events’, was huge, as they had variety and the latest trends at reasonable prices.
Such events tended to get more response from consumers, as also help mass market retailers, he added.