Fashion and lifestyle retailers say October went off to a fairly good run. The start of the month is very bullish over the weekend. Customers are excited to shop for the upcoming festive season.19 The highest since outlets reopened in June after months of quarantine. Due to the Eid Ul Azha and Rakhi festivals, a month-long deep discounting season had a booming market in malls. People are opening up and going to malls and stores to full fill their needs. However, the recovery is still very sluggish. And will take another six months to bounce back from the damage suffered by Covid-19, many of them said.
“We saw the highest sales post COVID for the last three days (between) 2nd and 4th (October),” said J. Suresh, Arvind Fashions’ managing director, sells brands such as US Polo, Flying Machine, Aeropostale and other labels. Recently only because of COVID-19 Arvind Fashion terminated their franchise with GAP.
“August was pretty good, but there was a slowdown in September,” Bindra told Biba. Whereas the showroom of Biba in Kolkata has reported a higher sale due to Durga Puja.
In recent weeks, malls have witnessed significant increases in footfall as the festive shoppers have begun to come out, though only in limited numbers.
Abhishek Bansal, executive director of Pacific Mall in west Delhi, said his mall’s fashion stores are only just 50 per cent of the average of last year. He expects fashion retailers to rebound only by December, up to 65 per cent of their last year’s business. “You are just sort of living at 60-65 per cent company. When the corporation recovers about 80% of the corporation, the real money and margins begin to appear, he said. “It’s going to be a huge obstacle because I’m not confident that it’s going to happen until March.”
