Retailers sing promotional jingles to usher in Christmas

With the Christmas season just around the corner, retailers are vying with each other to have a slice of the customers' time.

Most of the retailers agree that with that extra glitter and fancy colours at the entrance of their shops they can catch the wandering eyes of the customers enticing them to step into their shops. The retailers are adopting different promotional strategies to ensure that customers are pulled into their stores.

"Once they are in, we can manage getting a share of their wallet, but the real fight is for a share of their time," said Bipin Gurnani, chief operating officer, Piramyd Retail.

Shoppers Stop has set up giant size replicas of decorative items like wine bottles and ties done up at its entrance. Almost all the shops have mannequins dressed in woollies and Santa hats.

Mukesh Gajra, assistant general manager, operations, Globus, says the festive mood is brightening market sentiment and there is a rising demand for apparel and lifestyle products because of the increasing number of parties and night outs happening in the city.

Globus has a live band playing in their stores over the weekends as well as special incentives for shoppers.

Inorbit mall has tied up with some retailers in its premises for Christmas decor, as a result Cookie Man will have its Santa House in the atrium where kids can get photographed with Santa apart from having a Harry Potter meets Santa theme across the mall.

Explaining the reason behind these promotional activities, T Anupam, unit head, Inorbit mall, Malad, points out that sales tend to go up by 30 per cent with these promotions. "Also it is important to regain ground as the preferred destination for shopping and entertainment," he said.

Most promotions tend to be centered around kids for two reasons. The kids have an obvious association with Santa Claus and this being vacation time, they are the deciding factor as to where a family ends up going says, Gurnani.

Retail stores are also conducting magic shows and activities like face painting to attract the kids. Piramyd has a promotion centered around a special character it has created along with an all rounder talent hunt. The store is targetting a 30 per cent increase in footfalls through these activities which will go on till the end of the month.