Festive season sees cautious spending

Consumers spent on gifts, mobile phones; avoided expensive purchases

- Suneera Tandon

By several accounts, Indians were set to splurge this festive season. And they did–shopping online and on cars and two-wheelers, but for many traditional retailers and consumer goods makers, the season was merely satisfactory. As the lights dimmed on the mega sales period that began in October and stretched on until Diwali in mid-November, a pattern’s emerging on how Indians shopped–making for an interesting narrative on the country’s growth and consumption patterns.

While companies did report growth over the previous year’s festive season, several of them, especially offline sellers of apparel, lifestyle and consumer goods, said shoppers at the mass end of the market spent frugally. These consumers spent on gifts and mobile phones, but went easy on more expensive purchases.