Another bumper sale is underway at a superstore in the friendly neighbourhood shopping mall. The offer is tempting: buy a sofa set, get a cupboard free. Enticed? Go grab the furniture before it is too late.
But
hang on. In India, it is never too late. Stock clearances and factory seconds sales on garments, home décor products, electronic appliances and etc are a round-the-year affair in one of the world's fastest growing economies.
So take it easy. This "bumper sale" isn’t going away in a hurry. Even if it does, rest assured it will be back soon enough, beckoning you to make that big purchase that might not be all that essential. But why resist? A good deal is a good deal whether you need it or not.
The consumer base is impressively vast and vibrant in contemporary India. But we remain a land where the ethos of the good old village mela holds sway. When business is conducted in the informal, laid-back ambience of a rural fair, cheap isn’t necessarily bad. For the seller, the principle is pretty simple: give the buyer a bargain that he cannot refuse. It is an age-old compact that is valid to this day.
India has changed beyond recognition in the past two decades and the urge to splurge has multiplied manifold among a thriving segment of its populace. But, for an average Indian buyer, value for money is still of utmost importance. Doesn’t that explain why a discount sale never fails to catch the imagination of this country's burgeoning post-liberalisation middle class?
Sreekant Jain, a leading retailer of branded costumes in Kolkata's Burrabazar, says: "The offers run throughout the year basically in order to sell items that have remained unsold or have gone out of vogue. To accommodate the new fashion, we are compelled to sell the older ones at lower prices. But there's no denying that sales go up appreciably when we offer discounts. A 25 per cent price reduction pushes up sales by at least 35 per cent."
In the retail business arena, the average Indian consumer heartily embraces the tried and tested. Familiarity does not breed contempt here. If anything, it generates an air of comfort. So we head for big-brand outlets that give us the right prices and the right vibes.
Shopping malls are cavernous, impersonal and anonymous spaces where the consumer is by and large on his own although he is surrounded by streams of similarly meandering and gawky-eyed people. In these new temples of consumerist glitz and gloss, aspirations are sky high, and the inducements are countless.
The consumer strolls around the place, sometimes with intent, often quite aimlessly. When he finally strays into a shop that sells designer objects of desire, the products are often well beyond his budget. So, he occasionally ends up picking up stuff not because it has caught his fancy but because it turns out that he can afford it.
What probably creates an even bigger gulf between the buyer and the ‘faceless’ departmental store is that the former has to deal with constantly changing faces at the billing till. A transaction devoid of emotional connect does not lead to long-term allegiances. No wonder the retail supermarkets today go out of their way to develop relationships with their customers by handing out loyalty cards that guarantee special discounts and redeemable points every time a purchase is made.
"Discount sales target the middle class in particular. The idea is not just to attract them. We give them these benefits because we want to take them into confidence and engender in them a sense of being valued as customers," says Nadeem, proprietor of Zyclone Shop, a menswear store near the Kochi International Airport.
What comes in handy in this marketing strategy is the fact that India is a land of festivals, religious and otherwise, and an array of national celebrations. One simply needs an occasion – Diwali, Dussehra, Christmas, Eid, Guru Nanak Jayanti, Gandhi Jayanti, Independence Day, Raksha Bandhan, et al – to unleash "the biggest sale of the season".
In recent years, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and, most importantly, Valentine’s Day, among sundry other diurnal ideas borrowed from the West, have been added to that never-ending list of pretexts to woo consumers with sales that promise the earth and the moon in one go.
Bargain sales and stock clearances are certainly not peculiar to the Indian context. But in which other country of the world do retailers have the sheer diversity of valid reasons to pull out the stops and inveigle buyers with slashed prices?
In this country of a billion-plus people, not a month passes without a festival or anniversary of national significance impacting the retail scenario. Add to that the "end-of-season" sales that take place when winter and summer draw to a close, there isn’t a week when branded products aren’t up for grabs at eye-popping prices.
Says Ganpatbhai Kothari, owner of Kothari Electronics in Ahmedabad: "The festival season, a period of three to four months, is extremely crucial for us. People are on a shopping binge and in order to attract them we give them discounts that make a difference."
The festival season in India stretches for months – in Kerala it begins with Onam, in Gujarat with Navratri, in Bengal with Durga Puja, and in Maharashtra with Ganesh Chaturthi. Nowhere in India do people withdraw from their celebration mode until they have ushered in the New Year with a binge to put all other binges in the shade.
"The craze for discount sales is fuelled principally by India’s huge youth population that goes out
looking for its favourite brands but often prefers to wait until the time they are available at reduced prices. Says 28-year-old Ahmedabad resident Yogendu Joshi: "I always prefer to shop during Navratri because of the benefits that are available in the festival season.
Yes, quality is important, so when big brands offer hefty discounts why shouldn’t we grab it?"
But shops that offer year-round discounts – sometimes as high as 80 per cent – often face scepticism from consumers. How do they manage to make profits? Is quality a casualty? Says Prakash Dhamija, a young sales boy at an outlet in a Delhi NCR shopping mall: "The year-round sale is our USP. We thrive on volumes. We have a steady and committed clientele. Once a consumer is convinced of the quality of our garments, he or she keeps returning."
He asserts that the low prices are indeed the biggest draw. He points to the red jacket hanging in the shop window. "Doesn’t it look good enough to be worth Rs 5000? The "50 per cent off" tag makes it a steal. When the price seems far lower than the perceived worth of a product, the equation works perfectly for both buyer and seller," adds Prakash.
The buyer’s perspective isn’t different at all. "Discount sales are a huge boon," says A.P. Sasidharan Nair, a retired school teacher in Angamaly, Kerala. "Most of my branded household appliances were brought during the Onam season sales. I purchased my refrigerator, television set and washing machine when they were on discounts."
The question to be asked is: do we ever ask our physician, interior designer or hairstylist for discounts? The answer is no. Neither do we ever walk into a builder’s site office and demand a cut in the price of a property we are planning to buy. Certain transactions are outside the purview of bargaining procedures.
Contrast that with the scene in Dilli Haat, where craftsmen from around the country sell their wares. Here, haggling over prices is the norm. So the stalls, which sell anything from decorative knick-knacks and ethnic jewellery to furniture and carpets, do not offer any discounts. They don't have to.
But do we ever approach the floor manager of a shopping mall superstore and ask for reductions? We don't. So concessions are granted without the consumers having to ask for them. It is an integral part of the business. Dangle the carrot and draw people into the store and then hope they pick up the high-priced "new arrivals" as well while they look for the bargains.
Jiban Roy, Kolkata-based market analyst, says: "We love to bargain. We cough up Rs 100 for a cup of coffee but we get into a flap if an autorickshaw guy charges us a rupee extra. It is a mindset. That is why offers from the big brands turn us on." In a price-obsessed nation, that is par for the course.
Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Dr Malay Chaudhuri, Founder Director IIPM, tells TSI why the IIPM Awards are in a league of their own
Bollywood's No.1 Mum Kajol: Step ahead MOM!
Katrina Kaif: A British Indian Actress Born on July 16, 1984
IIPM Professor Arindam Chaudhuri on 'OBAMA and OSAMA'
But
hang on. In India, it is never too late. Stock clearances and factory seconds sales on garments, home décor products, electronic appliances and etc are a round-the-year affair in one of the world's fastest growing economies.So take it easy. This "bumper sale" isn’t going away in a hurry. Even if it does, rest assured it will be back soon enough, beckoning you to make that big purchase that might not be all that essential. But why resist? A good deal is a good deal whether you need it or not.
The consumer base is impressively vast and vibrant in contemporary India. But we remain a land where the ethos of the good old village mela holds sway. When business is conducted in the informal, laid-back ambience of a rural fair, cheap isn’t necessarily bad. For the seller, the principle is pretty simple: give the buyer a bargain that he cannot refuse. It is an age-old compact that is valid to this day.
India has changed beyond recognition in the past two decades and the urge to splurge has multiplied manifold among a thriving segment of its populace. But, for an average Indian buyer, value for money is still of utmost importance. Doesn’t that explain why a discount sale never fails to catch the imagination of this country's burgeoning post-liberalisation middle class?
Sreekant Jain, a leading retailer of branded costumes in Kolkata's Burrabazar, says: "The offers run throughout the year basically in order to sell items that have remained unsold or have gone out of vogue. To accommodate the new fashion, we are compelled to sell the older ones at lower prices. But there's no denying that sales go up appreciably when we offer discounts. A 25 per cent price reduction pushes up sales by at least 35 per cent."
In the retail business arena, the average Indian consumer heartily embraces the tried and tested. Familiarity does not breed contempt here. If anything, it generates an air of comfort. So we head for big-brand outlets that give us the right prices and the right vibes.
Shopping malls are cavernous, impersonal and anonymous spaces where the consumer is by and large on his own although he is surrounded by streams of similarly meandering and gawky-eyed people. In these new temples of consumerist glitz and gloss, aspirations are sky high, and the inducements are countless.
The consumer strolls around the place, sometimes with intent, often quite aimlessly. When he finally strays into a shop that sells designer objects of desire, the products are often well beyond his budget. So, he occasionally ends up picking up stuff not because it has caught his fancy but because it turns out that he can afford it.
What probably creates an even bigger gulf between the buyer and the ‘faceless’ departmental store is that the former has to deal with constantly changing faces at the billing till. A transaction devoid of emotional connect does not lead to long-term allegiances. No wonder the retail supermarkets today go out of their way to develop relationships with their customers by handing out loyalty cards that guarantee special discounts and redeemable points every time a purchase is made.
"Discount sales target the middle class in particular. The idea is not just to attract them. We give them these benefits because we want to take them into confidence and engender in them a sense of being valued as customers," says Nadeem, proprietor of Zyclone Shop, a menswear store near the Kochi International Airport.
What comes in handy in this marketing strategy is the fact that India is a land of festivals, religious and otherwise, and an array of national celebrations. One simply needs an occasion – Diwali, Dussehra, Christmas, Eid, Guru Nanak Jayanti, Gandhi Jayanti, Independence Day, Raksha Bandhan, et al – to unleash "the biggest sale of the season".
In recent years, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and, most importantly, Valentine’s Day, among sundry other diurnal ideas borrowed from the West, have been added to that never-ending list of pretexts to woo consumers with sales that promise the earth and the moon in one go.
Bargain sales and stock clearances are certainly not peculiar to the Indian context. But in which other country of the world do retailers have the sheer diversity of valid reasons to pull out the stops and inveigle buyers with slashed prices?
In this country of a billion-plus people, not a month passes without a festival or anniversary of national significance impacting the retail scenario. Add to that the "end-of-season" sales that take place when winter and summer draw to a close, there isn’t a week when branded products aren’t up for grabs at eye-popping prices.
Says Ganpatbhai Kothari, owner of Kothari Electronics in Ahmedabad: "The festival season, a period of three to four months, is extremely crucial for us. People are on a shopping binge and in order to attract them we give them discounts that make a difference."
The festival season in India stretches for months – in Kerala it begins with Onam, in Gujarat with Navratri, in Bengal with Durga Puja, and in Maharashtra with Ganesh Chaturthi. Nowhere in India do people withdraw from their celebration mode until they have ushered in the New Year with a binge to put all other binges in the shade.
"The craze for discount sales is fuelled principally by India’s huge youth population that goes out
looking for its favourite brands but often prefers to wait until the time they are available at reduced prices. Says 28-year-old Ahmedabad resident Yogendu Joshi: "I always prefer to shop during Navratri because of the benefits that are available in the festival season.Yes, quality is important, so when big brands offer hefty discounts why shouldn’t we grab it?"
But shops that offer year-round discounts – sometimes as high as 80 per cent – often face scepticism from consumers. How do they manage to make profits? Is quality a casualty? Says Prakash Dhamija, a young sales boy at an outlet in a Delhi NCR shopping mall: "The year-round sale is our USP. We thrive on volumes. We have a steady and committed clientele. Once a consumer is convinced of the quality of our garments, he or she keeps returning."
He asserts that the low prices are indeed the biggest draw. He points to the red jacket hanging in the shop window. "Doesn’t it look good enough to be worth Rs 5000? The "50 per cent off" tag makes it a steal. When the price seems far lower than the perceived worth of a product, the equation works perfectly for both buyer and seller," adds Prakash.
The buyer’s perspective isn’t different at all. "Discount sales are a huge boon," says A.P. Sasidharan Nair, a retired school teacher in Angamaly, Kerala. "Most of my branded household appliances were brought during the Onam season sales. I purchased my refrigerator, television set and washing machine when they were on discounts."
The question to be asked is: do we ever ask our physician, interior designer or hairstylist for discounts? The answer is no. Neither do we ever walk into a builder’s site office and demand a cut in the price of a property we are planning to buy. Certain transactions are outside the purview of bargaining procedures.
Contrast that with the scene in Dilli Haat, where craftsmen from around the country sell their wares. Here, haggling over prices is the norm. So the stalls, which sell anything from decorative knick-knacks and ethnic jewellery to furniture and carpets, do not offer any discounts. They don't have to.
But do we ever approach the floor manager of a shopping mall superstore and ask for reductions? We don't. So concessions are granted without the consumers having to ask for them. It is an integral part of the business. Dangle the carrot and draw people into the store and then hope they pick up the high-priced "new arrivals" as well while they look for the bargains.
Jiban Roy, Kolkata-based market analyst, says: "We love to bargain. We cough up Rs 100 for a cup of coffee but we get into a flap if an autorickshaw guy charges us a rupee extra. It is a mindset. That is why offers from the big brands turn us on." In a price-obsessed nation, that is par for the course.
Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Dr Malay Chaudhuri, Founder Director IIPM, tells TSI why the IIPM Awards are in a league of their own
Bollywood's No.1 Mum Kajol: Step ahead MOM!
Katrina Kaif: A British Indian Actress Born on July 16, 1984
IIPM Professor Arindam Chaudhuri on 'OBAMA and OSAMA'
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