Fashion biz set for biggest growth in festive season

BENGALURU: As the sales in the first festive week is likely to touch $5.9 billion this year, 63 per cent of consumers are planning to spend on fashion categories compared to 56 per cent last year, a new report showed on Friday.

Despite concerns around inflation and discretionary spends, customers are looking forward to spending more and sellers on e-commerce platforms are expecting a 20 per cent volume growth during the festive season, reports Redseer Strategy Consultants. According to its report, 83 per cent of the respondents indicated willingness to buy various products this festive season that began this week.

“The share of fashion in overall festive sale in the first festive week is estimated to increase by 9pp from 2018-22. Online fashion has grown 4x in the last four years compared to 3x growth for overall e-tail,” said Sanjay Kothari, Associate Partner, Redseer Strategy Consultants.

Fuelling this growth is the increasing shopper base from tier 2 and beyond cities, “resulting in 2.5 times growth in fashion shoppers in the last four years”, Kothari added.

The positive sentiments are driven by demand for fashion, mobiles, electronics and large appliances. Nearly 53 per cent of consumers are going to spend on electronics compared to 44 per cent last year. Festive sales will see higher participation from fashion sellers this year compared to other categories.

Redseer has predicted $11.8 billion worth gross merchandise value (GMV) during the festive month.