It’s discount time. With non-essential retail now allowed to operate in the key metros, shoppers can expect massive discounts on everything from iPhones to track pants because the mid-year sales have been advanced by a month.
Amazon, Myntra and Reliance Retail’s Ajio have already begun to roll out their offers from this week. Fashion and apparel e-tailer Myntra is organising a mid-year sale between June 12 and 16 with 40-70 per cent discounts. Additional discounts and cashback offers with lenders have been chalked out to sweeten the deals further.
Myntra’s direct competitor, Ajio, is holding a ‘giant’ fashion sale till June 10 with 50-80 per cent discounts.
Amazon is clearing stocks of electronics items such as notebooks and the latest iPhone 12 models. Unlike other years, the new iPhone models – the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 - are now offered at 9-11 per cent discounted rates, apart from cashback offers.
Usually, such discounts are only offered on older versions of Apple phones. Sources in the handset industry said similar offers will soon be unveiled for other brands too.
In the January-March quarter, a record number of smartphones and notebooks were shipped in but rising covid cases impacted sales from March onwards, leaving most retailers with larger inventories than usual.
In the recent past, offline retailers have been at loggerheads with their online competitors over steep discounting and they areat loggerheads this year too but this time they are not ready to concede any ground without a fight.
According to sources, prominent brands in the fashion and apparel space are advancing the mid-year sale season to mid-June, in addition to attractive offers.
“Most of the retailers at our properties are planning to launch their sales on or around 15 June,” said Pushpa Bector, executive director at DLF Malls. According to her, both DLF and retailers are now confident about opening up as they have managed to vaccinate the entire staff at the malls and retail outlets in Delhi.
DLF has four malls in the capital. The sale will be rolled out at its largest property – the Mall of India – in Noida a week after a vaccination drive is finished by next week. All employees at malls and retail outlets will wear a badge showing they are fully vaccinated to create consumer confidence.
Prominent brands such as Pantaloons, Allen Solly, Levi’s, Puma and Bata, among others, are expected to follow suit within two weeks, sources said.
Beauty and wellness retailers like Kaya and Enrich Salons are offering discounts on products and services and calling up clients to their clinics and salons via emails, phone calls and text messages.
After complete loss of business for close to two months, sellers of non-essential goods are in desperate need of cash. Moreover, inventories lying at warehouses for nearly a quarter need to be cleared to cut inventory costs and roll the business.
Durables, for instance, typically come with greater logistics and warehousing costs because of their bulk and the space they occupy. Retailers in the durables market have huge inventories.
Nilesh Gupta, managing director at Vijay Sales, is hoping that pent-up demand for ‘essential electronics’ like notebooks, smartphones and television sets will lift his business.
According to Ritesh Ghosal, chief marketing officer at Croma, demand is encouraging and those retailers who have enough stock will be better positioned to capitalise on the post-lockdown trend.
“Discounts and offers for TVs are already on and currently supply is less of an issue. We expect mid-size TV (40-43 inch) sets to drive volume this time,” said Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO, Super Plastronics which manufactures Kodak and Thomson brands of smart TVs.