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As East
India's biggest festive season is knocking on the doors in West
Bengal with the city grooming up to greet the Devi, the retail
business in the city seems to have been hit hard with the market
registering a steep fall of at least 23%. Even the offers and
promotions by the vendors have fallen on deaf ears with the consumers
spending their savings and circulatory incomes on holidays, clothes
and consumer electronics a trend repeated every year in Bengal.
“This
festive season, we have a 'scratch and win' offer in association
with Lenovo to maximize our sales. Prizes included a car,
motorcycles, air conditioners, mobile phones, LCD TVs and numerous
other products. But it seems to have fallen on deaf ears,” said
Gaurav Goel of
Logica Infoway.
Revenue for
Eastern Logica has dropped by over 30% on a m-o-m basis this festive
season. The prime factor behind this is that consumers are resorting
to buy more consumer electronics items and apparels. Also, the case
is the same with Technocrat Infotech's retail outlet in Kolkata
where although there hasn't been a decrease in sales figure, the
accounts are status quo.
Speaking
over
the trend during the festive season in Bengal, Asif Khan of
Technocrat Infotech said, “The trend in Bengal is quite opposite to
that of North and West India. Whereas in these parts of the country,
people buy a lot during their festive seasons; in Kolkata, people
spend heavily over apparels and other items during this season which
adversely affects the IT sales.” This trend has been quite
repetitive in the market throughout the course of 5 years but this
time, it has exceeded the worst fears of the channel partners.
“Not only
is the festive season affecting the sales, even the channel partners
are buying low from the distributors. The primary factor is the
dollar appreciation which has pulled up the prices of IT products. In
the backdrop of a high stocking joint with most of the retailers, I
am fearing the problem of over-hoarding to step in,” said JK Bothra
of Planet Computers.
Not only is
the festive season dampening the channel sales in Kolkata and
Siliguri, but the weather has also been blamed as one of the primary
factors. “The rains this time have spoiled the entire marketing
effort. Every now and then it starts raining and roads are
water-logged in some parts of the city. With such a rough weather in
place making commutation hard for people, sales have decreased
further,” complained Goel.
As consumer
electronics items and apparel companies are making the most of it
during the festive season, IT trading seems to have been left out of
the share. “Even promotions and offers by the vendors and outlets
are not doing their marvel. As for me, I have not launched any
discount scheme or offer in my showroom knowing it well that there
are hardly any chances of it being working,” Khan concluded.
Even as IT
retail scenario looks gloomy in the city with a negative growth of
23%, tablets have started to carve out their niche in this season.
Recently, Lalani Infotech launched a promotional offer of Reliance
tablets and 3G data cards for Rs 13,000 and it turned
out to be a success.
“I have
sold 8 tablets with the 3G data card offer in the last 24 hours and
it seems that tablets are going to take the market by storm in the
coming months. Expecting a good season in the coming months, I think
that we will be able to register at least 30% growth in second half
of FY11,” said KL Lalani of
Infotech.
In the
gloomy
backdrop of the negative market growth in the city, rains and the
forthcoming festive season, channel partners are expecting a revival
of the market post-Puja season although this is seemingly
apprehensive for the Diwali season.