Festive shopping aids recovery as retail sales reach 88% of pre-pandemic levels in August: RAI

Representative Image: A woman shops for bangles at a shop in the Laad Bazaar in Hyderabad (PC-NYT)

Retail sales recovered to as much as 88 percent of the pre-pandemic levels in the country aided by festive shopping, says a recent survey by the Retailers Association of India (RAI).

The findings of the survey showed that retail businesses in the North and the South India are almost back to the pre-pandemic levels with in August 2021 with sales at 98 percent and 97 percent (of the pre-Covid times), respectively. While West and East of India are looking hopeful of recovery in the next few months with current sales at 76 percent and 81 percent of pre-pandemic levels (August 2019).

Some categories, such as quick service restaurants (QSRs) and good and grocery have started to register growth as compared to the pre-COVID period. QSRs clocked 12 percent sales growth August, while the food and grocery segment grew 4 percent, revealed the findings of RAI survey. Other retail segments such as beauty and wellness, which includes salons, apparel, footwear and jewellery are yet to catch up to the pre-pandemic levels of sales.

“As the festive season approaches and the inoculation drive picks up pace across the country, we are hopeful that the festive shopping this year will drive positive growth for most retailers, with the possibility of some retailers doing even better sales than the pre-pandemic levels,” said Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, RAI.

Retailers, battered by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, have been slowly inching towards recovery. The sales recovered to 72 percent of the pre-pandemic levels in July and 50 percent in June. In April, as the second wave of the pandemic hit the country retail sales de-grew to 49 percent after recovering to 88 percent in March.

Though recovery at the moment looks encouraging across categories, he added, retailers continue to maintain cautious optimism due to the possibility of a third wave of the pandemic.