The Federation of Retailer Association of India, a representative body of over four crore retailers across the country, has urged consumers to buy goods from retail stores during the upcoming festival season to “avoid illicit and substandard products”.
FRAI said that consumers earlier shopped online due to personal safety and other concerns during the Covid-19 pandemic, but, with the situation normalising, it urged them to return to retail stores and experience the look and feel of products before shopping.
It said this shift would come to the aid of the small and medium retailers who suffered massive losses due to Covid lockdowns and other restrictions.
The association also said that the pandemic had become a boon for illicit trade, with a large number of smuggled and counterfeit goods being sold online. With limited or no checks over such goods, consumers are at risk of being cheated, it said.
A recent report pegged the illicit market in five key Indian industries — mobile phones, FMCG-household and personal goods, FMCG-packaged foods, tobacco products, and alcoholic beverages — at ₹2,60,094 crore in 2019-20.
The illegal trade led to job losses of 15.96 lakh, and government revenue loss of ₹58,521 crore, the report added.
Gulab Chand Khoda, Joint Secretary, FRAI, said shopping from trusted retail stores will not only protect consumers from counterfeit and substandard goods but also help retailers recover from the economic shocks inflicted by the pandemic.
Consumers must remember that smuggled and substandard goods pose a serious threat to the economy, employment generation, and public health, he said.
In India, unorganised retail is the second largest employment generating sector after agriculture.
FRAI counts 34 retail associations as members.