For retail shops, Christmas came early!

This Diwali season is proving to be lucky for leading brick and mortar retailers, as they are seeing double-digit surge in their same-store sales. This has happened despite the big discount sales that top online rivals rolled out last month. This has hinted at a sharp u-turn from last year's trend when we saw physical stores reporting subdued demand because of customers’ growing fondness fro e-commerce players.

The retailers that have seen good sales count in big names like Future Group, Arvind Brands, Shoppers Stop, Vijay Sales, Puma and Max. all these names have reported floating demand for their products in the past two weeks.

Future Group, which is country's largest retailer, is reportedly all set to grow its business by 25 to 30% this Diwali season. Retailers have attributed the rise in demand for their products to fresh merchandise, fewer discounted merchandise of big brands on online portals, and early onset of winter chill in some parts of the country.

"With fewer discounts by ecommerce and new season merchandise offered by physical retailers, we are seeing same-store sales growth of 8-15%," said J Suresh, chief executive at Arvind Lifestyle Brands, which sells brands such as Gap, US Polo, Wrangler and Calvin Klein.

Last year, e-commerce giants Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal pursued an aggressive discounting policy during the festive season, which helped them gain market share and traffic. This in turn left an impact on the demand in physical stores; this forced traditional retailers to approach the government over what they said was predatory pricing.

What has come out of this trend is the fact that e-commerce players and brick and mortar retailers can coexist in the market, without necessarily harming each other.

Govind Shrikhande, Managing Director at the country's largest department store chain Shoppers Stop, stated that the "huge gap" between end of season sales in August and Diwali has also helped the surge in demand.

A survey by global research firm Ipsos reported that nearly 81% consumers prefer to buy from physical stores during festive seasons rather than from online companies, no matter the discounts.

Indian festive season, which starts from Durga Puja and continues till Diwali season sees a quick upsurge in the consumer spending, because of financial issues taking a back step and festive emotions seeping in to the priority.

Industry insiders have said that big marketers like LG, Apple and Panasonic started their festive promotions much earlier than usual this year. This was done to ensure that their offline trade is not hit hard by online discounts.

Meanwhile, e-commerce majors have started to consolidate their business with a significant increase in the number of vendors and product categories. With more and more people taking to online shopping through mobile apps, this has helped in the expansion of the overall market.

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