Riding on Republic Day

It’s traditionally believed that the festive season is the boom time for retailers. But a study by consumer research giant Nielsen indicates that national holidays like India’s Republic Day on 26 January are equally important.

Traditionally, customers in India made bulk purchases and indulged in premium purchases primarily during the festive season. However, Nielsen's analysis over the last couple of years points out that shoppers are not limiting their enthusiasm to festivals alone. They are also making bulk purchases during events created by retailers around national holidays like Republic Day, Labour Day (1 May) and Independence Day (15 August). Nielsen calls these days "Big Events" and says that such events are attracting additional shoppers as well.

The findings for the big events paper are based on the Modern Trade Scantrack data, which is collected across 12 key cities, namely Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Surat, Vadodara, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. Scantrack data for the past two years during Republic Day, Independence Day, Labour Day, Gandhi Jayanti and Diwali was analysed to arrive at the findings. The time period taken into consideration was from mid-2014 to mid-2016.

The study reports that big events represent a big sales surge; therefore, accessing the shopper spend becomes most important as it will bring a jump in the GMV (Gross Market Value) and enable higher customer acquisitions.

Currently, event sales contribute to INR 955 crore in modern trade (for the year ending May 2016), accounting for nearly 17 per cent of total fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sales. Nielsen says this is an 8 per cent growth in sales during events as compared to previous year.

However, Republic Day is not the biggest among the Big Events. While festivals and holidays occur throughout the year in India, the second half of the year is widely considered the festive sales period, as it fits in nicely with a lot of celebrated holidays. The retailer created week-long Independence sale event which is designed around the Indian Independence date of 15 August, makes around INR 190 crore in sales compared to an average event sale of INR 142 crore, designating it as the biggest sale event for the year.