After witnessing muted demand in the past few months, apparel players have begun witnessing an uptick in sales as per early festival shopping trends.

Demand has picked up across both online as well as offline channels for festival, occasion-wear, athleisure and sportswear collections in the past few days, some of the leading brands stated. Industry players are hoping to garner double-digit sales growth during the festival season.

Sidhant Keshwani, Founder and CEO of Libas told businessline, “We began seeing an uptick in demand from late September onwards on the online channel. In the past few days, even the offline business has picked up strongly with higher footfalls and the consumers are showing strong intent to buy. I would say the demand uptick has been higher than our initial expectations. We had earlier targeted 20-25 per cent growth during festival season but looking at the response, we are now expecting to see growth of about 30-40 per cent over same period last year.”

The apparel industry had been witnessing weak demand trends from the past two quarters, this had made players cautious about festival season expectations but now they say early trends are promising.

Ajay Kapoor, President-Retail, Fabindia, said, “We have begun witnessing a significant growth in the early phase of the festivities, and we are expecting multifold growth during the season.” He added that the company’s festive curation, ‘Svarnim’ is seeing good response and has led to “steep rise in demand.”

‘Heightened demand’

Myntra said that categories that witnessed “heightened demand” during the recently concluded Big Fashion Festival sale event included women’s ethnic wear, men’s occasion and casual wear, and sports footwear

Rajesh Jain, MD & CEO, Lacoste India said the brand is targeting a double-digit growth during the festival season riding on strong demand momentum for premium categories. “Consumers have been more discerning and spending more on products which fit their lifestyle. They have also been upgrading to premium products. So these categories are expected to do well even during the festival season,” he added.

Harkirat Singh, MD, Aero Club, known for Woodland and Woods, noted that sales at offline stores are up by 6-7 per cent as per early trends “ The consumer sentiment seems to be positive and we remain cautiously optimistic for the season,” he added.

“After a challenging period for the apparel segment, we are witnessing an encouraging uptick in demand with the onset of the festive season. The market sentiment has noticeably improved, with customers returning to stores with renewed enthusiasm. As we progress through the festive season, we remain optimistic about achieving substantial growth,” said Deepak Bansal, Director, Cantabil Retail India Ltd.

According to the latest CRISIL Ratings report, the organised retail apparel sector is expected to clock a revenue growth of 8-10 per cent this fiscal on the back of higher demand stemming from a normal monsoon, easing inflation, festive and wedding season and increasing preference for fast fashion.

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