Retail loses over ` 20 L cr business

Unorganised retail has lost Rs 19 lakh crore of business in the past five months of lock-down restrictions. Organised retail too has lost almost Rs 1.3 lakh crore during the period.

The retail trade has been going through a rough path in the past five months. Two months of lock-down was followed by unlock restrictions. Further, lower appetite for non-essential purchases amidst economic uncertainty, minimal footfalls and customer preference of online channel has led to a loss of Rs 19 lakh crore for the unorganised trade.

According to the Confederation of All India Traders, the unorganised retailers lost about 5 lakh crore of business and Rs 4.5 lakh crore in the lockdown months of April and May. Unlock1 from the month of June did not bring any respite as the loss still stood around Rs 4 lakh crore. By July it was Rs 3 lakh crore and in the month of August it came down to Rs 2.5 lakh crore. Cait had conducted a survey retailers in 20 cities.

Similarly, organised retail has met with a loss of around Rs 1.3 lakh crore in the past five months as 55 per cent of the business has been lost. These are largely non-essential items, which hardly have any takers in the post-Covid times, said Kumar of

Rajagopalan CEO, Retailers Association of India. Closure of malls too has hit the business of organized retailers.

Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general of Cait, said, “Many shops have already closed and we expect at least 20 per cent or 1.4 crore retailers may end up winding up.”

According to him, the entire supply chain is under financial stress as the payments due to vendors in February-March for the supplies bought in November-December are still pending.

According to a report by Retailers Association of India and Anarock Capital, 70 per cent of organised retailers anticipate business recovery in more than 6 months and 20 per cent in more than a year.