Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: This year’s festive season would be the moment of truth for micro, tiny and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across many offline customer-facing sectors just after the dampened show last year. That’s also since the on the internet channel or e-commerce had seized the chance last year to pull shoppers onto the digital medium for each recreational and important purchasing, thanks to the Covid-induced tailwinds. Now possessing battled the two waves of the pandemic and understood the obtaining behaviour of customers in the new normal, tiny firms which includes retailers are hoping to get their mojo back to some extent this festive season as the price of vaccination continues to go up even as the worry of third-wave lingers on in the background.
“There is definitely some sense of optimism for this year’s festive season. While the third wave’s fear is there but it seems the vaccination programme is well on its way to take care of the situation. So, the big silver lining is clearly the vaccination programme. If this continues, most of the retailers will plan for a big festive season while many are expecting growth over 2019 levels. This season would be of cheerful shopping from last year’s,” Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India (RAI) told TheSpuzz Online.
While customers had planned purchasing in the course of last year’s festive season as properly, 75 per cent have been inclined towards producing on the internet purchases in comparison to 66 per cent who had planned to opt for standalone shops, according to RAI’s festive purchasing index 2020. Apparel purchasing and consuming out have generally been the top rated indicators of how properly the customer sentiment has been during the festive season.
“Electronics and food segments are already doing good. The real indicator is garments after food. The second-largest category of consumption in India is garments or textiles which hasn’t been as successful yet. Here the feeling of enjoyment during the season to go out and meet friends and relatives is important as the office wear segment is still impacted. So, growth would come if casual clothing and festive clothing recover. That will be the big cheer,” added Rajagopalan.
The domestic textiles and apparel marketplace was about worth $one hundred billion in FY19 and is probably to develop to $190 billion by FY26, according to India Brand Equity Foundation. According to a current ICRA report, textile exporters in India would be seeing a 20-25 per cent in the course of the existing monetary year. Moreover, the government on Wednesday had authorized the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for man-made fiber-based apparel and 10 segments of technical textiles with a budgetary outlay of Rs 10,683 crore. Also, export-incentive schemes such as Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) and Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) are anticipated to enhance the textiles sector.
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“Textile sector is doing good while the growth in exports is also looking to pick up. The sector majorly has MSMEs. As far as expectations from the festive season is concerned, textile and apparel businesses are definitely expecting it to be better than last year’ season. While one won’t expect the markets to be crowded like before Covid, but it won’t be sombre like the previous year. The trend is towards improvement in sales while reaching 2019 levels will take some time. Businesses have now been used to the Covid environment and they know how much goods to stock,” Ashok Juneja, President, The Textile Association (India) told TheSpuzz Online.
“The government’s initiatives like RoSCTL, RoDTEP, PLI scheme, etc., will help MSMEs do better during the festive season. The demand is likely to go up from last year,” VD Zope, Chairman, The Textile Association (India) told TheSpuzz Online.
Delhi-based RK Vij of Indorama Synthetics, which is into the polyester fabric, stated firms are expecting enhanced sales from this month onwards, coming out of the second wave’s influence. “We have already been running our plant and the growth this season is expected to be around 15-20 per cent in the production and subsequent sales. We are more prepared this time amid a possible third wave and expect less impact on sales,” Vij told TheSpuzz Online.
Likewise, Viva Hospitality, which owns the rapid-service restaurant brand Imly, sees the self-assurance coming back to a fair extent this year in comparison to last year as customers have returned to consuming out with households and good friends post second wave. Hospitality was amongst the sectors that witnessed maximum disruption last year as lockdown-associated restrictions forced eateries to shut temporarily and customers to remain inside their houses.
“Restaurants this year started opening up in June itself after the second wave. So, the relaxation post-Covid is there now while a lot of people have already been vaccinated. The situation would be much better this season. We have recovered around 60 per cent while our bar concept called Duty Free has got 80 per cent recovery done in comparison to just 30 per cent last year from pre-covid levels,” Varun Puri, Co-founder, Viva Hospitality told TheSpuzz Online. Puri added that he had to shut 4 outlets in the course of the Covid period as landlords have been not prepared to negotiate with the rentals. However, they have been also capable to open three new outlets amid Covid itself.
“Festive season gains will nowhere be close to what we have lost but it will help regain some confidence. If there is a third wave, it would definitely hit the confidence but restaurants are better prepared this time,” Puri stated. However, according to Rajagopalan, the buying pattern could possibly take a dip in the course of the festive season if there is a third wave as people today will not celebrate the time with a sense of optimism and would favor once more not to move out to shop or meet relatives or good friends.