Touted as one of India’s biggest festivals, Diwali sales are likely to cross Rs 3.5 lakh crore, a positive development for the trading community, said the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Sunday.
A recent survey by the trade body in 30 cities of different states revealed that this year the markets have started gripping festival spirit much better than in previous years.
“Looking at the consumer enthusiasm and expenditure during Raksha Bandhan, Ganesh Puja, Navratri, Durga Puja and Dussehra, it looks certain that Diwali sales figures are all set to surpass Rs 3.5 lakh crore this year,” it mentioned.
BC Bhartia, National President and Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, CAIT in a joint statement said, “Almost about 65 crore consumers across the country do Diwali festival shopping and even if we assume an average of Rs 5,500 spending per head, we will achieve Rs 3.5 lakh crore very comfortably.”
Although a large number of people do shop for goods upto even Rs 500 simultaneously there are tens of thousands of consumers who spend lakhs and lakhs of rupees in festival shopping. Therefore, the Diwali festival season has its own significance from the point of view of trade, the trade leaders added.
Bhartia and Khandelwal further stated, “Though every vertical of trade is expecting a large volume of business but prominently the trade of gift items, sweets, dry fruits, electronics, automobiles, clothing, jewellery, utensils, decorative items, furniture, kitchenware, mobiles, computers, beauty products, consumer durables, FMCG products etc will be the biggest gainers of festival sales.”
Notably, during Diwali, tens of thousands of events are organised all over the country which is expected a major business opportunity for the service industry including hotels, restaurants, banquet halls, event management groups, cab services, delivery sector, performers, artists etc.
Both Bhartia and Khandelwal said that due to Atmnirbhar Bharat and vocal for local campaign, the sales of Chinese festival-related items have gone down drastically. “Now, specifically, the consumers ensure that they are not buying Chinese goods,” the added.
