It’s almost back to business for consumer incentives in FMCG and grocery chains, online and brick and mortar.
Discounts, cashbacks, bank and digital wallet offers are reappearing. And consumers may soon also see large apparel retailers, other big brands and ecommerce majors rolling out huge discounts across categories as soon as most markets and malls reopen.
Deals on grocery and FMCG had evaporated days before lockdown in March last week when panic buying had started. But as supplies get normalised and the spike in demand dips, players such as Amazon, Grofers, BigBasket and Spencer’s Retail are rolling out incentives. Grofers CEO Albinder Dhindsa said with supply chain now getting streamlined, costs of operation are down and these savings are being passed on to consumers.
Spending Worries
Leading biscuit-maker Parle Products’ category head Mayank Shah said with supplies improving, discounts are returning. Seshu Kumar, national head (buying and merchandising) at Big Basket, said discounts will now be restored completely in next 15 days.
Ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart and Paytm Mall too are working on discount sales as soon as 80-85% of pin codes become operational. Plans are to roll these out later this month or early next month, industry executives said.
Paytm Mall senior VP Srinivas Mothey said the marketplace is in discussion with banks to offer cashbacks. Both Paytm Mall and Amazon said prices are determined by sellers, while Flipkart did not respond.
Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO of SPPL, manufacturer of online focused television brands Kodak and Thomson, said “brands need to clear inventory… considering demand may falter”.
Brands and retailers fear consumer spending will dip across categories over the next few months with salary cuts and fear of job losses disrupting shopper sentiments.
Arvind Fashions CEO J Suresh said most apparel retailers and brands may go on sale right from day one the market reopens. “Ideally, we should have delayed it to July to allow some sales at full price, but with cash flow severely affected and summer collection unsold, sale will start early,” he said.
Yogeshwar Sharma, executive director at Select Citywalk Mall in New Delhi, said fashion retailers will open with attractive offers to bring in consumers since they need liquidity and demand may take some time to return to normalcy. Future Group is planning a sale immediately after lockdown for apparel formats like FBB and departmental chain Central.
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