This coming festive season Indian consumers will be exposed to dead stocks and leftover freshly packaged as old wine in new bottle ! The reasons are not difficult to find !!
Past one year due to economic slowdown the stocks have built up at incredibly high rate due to stagnant sales. Where will these stocs go…? Certainly not to charity as western retailers do when they have dead stocks. Indian companies will push these stocks as fresh significantly eroding the value for money.
How can a customer make out if this is fresh retail or old stock ?
In India there is no concept of colours or trend in a season precisely because except a miniscule percentage of fashion fraternity, “Aam Aadmi” is blissfully unaware of trend, fashion,fabrics and colours….which ought to be specific to specific season ! Just visit any top brand garment retailers the colour concept is so restricted to winter colours and summer colours which is dark colurs and light colours. There is a very limited coordination of colour concept and visual merchandising. You imagine Tommy Hilfiger showroom you will instantly associate with its colours, Lilly Pulitzer….you will know their colur story. Same is with Next, Gap, Zara, Monsoon….they all have identity very specific to them and people in western countries closely associates their colour affinity with these brands.
Contrast this with Indian Retailers like Shopper Stop, Pantaloon, Max, Life style, Spncers etc. Their product range looks like coming from a similar source or similar stabal ! Only choice perhaps is the selling price of each of these brands otherwise they offer no value preposition.
This brings to the opportunity these retailers can tap and can increase sales in forthcoming festive season in India when sales remail at yearly high.
They got to liquidate their stocks by offering Genuine Discounts rather indulging in gimmicks like UPTO 50 % discount which you will find when you once to step in that you have been taken for a ride. The 50 % discounted stuff will be perhaps 0.01 % of articles in showroom !!! Similarly a standard trick is 50% discount + 20 % discount ! It is a mathematical trickery again. Another trick is to increase selling price to 100 % and then offer above mentioned discounts. This does not make sense unless these retailers have run out of ideas and totally mental bankrupt in offering innovative menthod to increase sales. This way Mr. Retailers you cannot build brand loyalty…it does not pay to fleece customer in the long run.
There are ways and means to genuinely increase sales and retain loyal customers and to know that contact me !
