Endofseason sales come early
SALE TIME Big brands kick off the sales season this week MUMBAI:
A long Christmas weekend, early online sales, and leftover stocks have prompted retailers across the country to advance their end-of season sales.
Department stores like Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons and Lifestyle, along with brands like Charles & Keith, Massimo Dutti, among others, are on sale starting this week.
“What we are hearing from retailers is that they still have a lot of stock left,” Anupam T, vicepresident of Oberoi Mall in Mumbai, said. “These sales are happening early to liquidate those stocks. The sales have mostly started today, a week earlier than they did last year,” he added.
Rajendra Kalkar, president (west) of Phoenix Mills Mall agreed that sales have started early.
“But, I cannot attribute a single reason to it. Some brands in the mall have gone on sale earlier than others. As a mall, we do not have control over when brands go on sale,” he said.
Among the brands in the mall offering a discount are Inditexowned Massimo Dutti, currently on an up-to-50%-off sale, and footwear and bags brand Charles & Keith, which is at a flat 40% off during the Christmas weekend.
“The early sales right now are also to capitalize on the long Christmas weekend of 22 December to 25 December,” Abhishek Bansal, executive director of Pacific Malls India, said. “Brands are cashing in on the weekend. We have also been running weekend promotions with about 60-70% of the brands (located in the mall),” he said. Pacific Mall is located in the national Capital Region centred around Delhi.
Meanwhile, end-of-season sales on apparel are already underway online, perhaps prompting brick-and-mortar retailers to offer discounts as well. Flipkart-owned Myntra is running an “End of Reason Sale” offering 50-80% discounts and Amazon India has a “Wardrobe Refresh” sale with 40-80% off, specifically during the 22-25 December weekend.
Malls are expecting heavy footfalls this weekend with Salman Khan-starrer Tiger Zinda Hai having released on Friday. A number of multiplexes are located in malls.
To be sure, global fast fashion brands in India say they have always been on sale in December.
“The H&M end of season sale has started in the same week as last year. Since the time we launched in 2015 we have been having the end of season sale in December,” a spokesperson for H&M India said in an email, adding that the firm adheres to global apparel sales timelines.
“Sales slowed down in the October-November period, right after Diwali, and the sales in November in particular have not been good,” Govind Shrikhande, Managing Director, Shoppers Stop, said in an interview.
“So most of us (retailers) have preponed our sales by a week,” he said, adding that Shoppers Stop opened its sales today.