Consumer durables cos witness slower sales this festive season
15 Oct 2017 11:14 PM IST
New Delhi: Consumer durables makers such as Panasonic India, Godrej Appliances and Usha International are finding sales in the ongoing festive season to be slower as pre-GST purchases in June have made demand relatively weaker.
The companies, however, expect sales to pick in the rest of the season as they step up campaign to woo consumers to the showrooms with new products and attractive offers.
"The decline can be due to consumers advancing purchases during the pre-GST sales in June and online sales, which have taken away a lot of the demand in last month," Panasonic India Head Sales and Service Ajay Seth said.
Expressing similar views, Godrej Appliances Business Head and Executive VP Kamal Nandi said: "Due to the fear of a price rise and chain and large format stores advertising pre-GST discounts, some customers advanced their purchases and we saw a spike in sales towards the end of June".
EY Partner and National leader, Consumer Products and Retail Pinakiranjan Mishra said sales for consumer durables have been slower this season due to GST as consumers latched onto the attractive offers during the pre-GST phase.
"There was an initial impact of GST for first few weeks but slowly and steadily it has picked up. We have strategically timed our product launches around the festive season and are also giving mega festival offers, including attractive discounts and combo offers," Usha International President-Sewing Machine and Appliances Harvinder Singh said.
Nandi said customers are under the misconception that prices have gone up significantly after GST implementation.
There has only been a price increase of 2-3 per cent.
"We expect the customers to come back to the market during the festive season and witness this for themselves," Nandi said, adding that we expect a growth of 30 per cent over the last festive season.
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