Nandini Vaidyanathan speaks on how festivals create demand, discounts create noise, but only consistent fulfillment creates lasting retail brands
The obvious answer is it is driven by the spirit of Christmas and New Year. But in India, practically from Ganesh Chaturthi onwards which is in August/September, the festive spirit is in the air all the way up to Pongal/Sankranti/Lori in mid-January of the following year. Dussehra and Diwali in October/November ring in maximum footfalls, especially in the jewelry, apparel, kitchen appliances, sweets and savories, and home décor segments. Christmas in December is festival time for Christians but it is holiday time for others as schools and colleges take a week’s break and so do workplaces who service clients in US and Europe. So across the board, it is boom time for the tourism sector which includes transport, hotels, on-site adventures and local shopping and entertainment.
I remember as a child growing up in Bangalore, each festival warranted a particular kind of shopping. Ganesh Chaturthi meant silk and gold jewelry. Dussehra meant dolls, clothes and accessories for the dolls, different kinds of food on each of the nine days, rangoli, and flower decoration. Diwali meant a traditional oil bath, Lakshmi pooja, new clothes, lots of sweets and savories diyas and firecrackers (not the noisy ones, just sparklers and the chakras). And Christmas/New year meant buying lots of greeting cards, quirky stationery, small gifts, candles, plum cake, lights, and may be more eating out than usual to discover global traditional Christmas cuisine.
So forever and ever, it is almost as if the retail industry gears up during the first half of the year for boom time during the second half of the year. In December alone it is said there is a five percent increase in retail sales. In December 2024, South India sales grew by 6 percent while East grew by 4 per cent and North by 5 per cent.
Given the onslaught of natural calamities in the usual touristy places such as Bangkok, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and even Dubai this year, it is expected that Indians will choose domestic destinations over international travel, this December. It is also expected that India will have an influx of well-heeled tourists who have both the intent and the purchasing power to shop till they drop. Hopefully the aviation sector will not be the deal-breaker.
All of this means that in December 2025, retail sector will post the highest gains led by QSRs, apparel, jewelry, electronics, white goods, home décor, and personal accessories. The retail mania is also fueled by online behemoths like Amazon, Flipkart and others with branded sale days such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Great Indian shopping Festival, Big Billion, End-of-Reason, etc. This strategy is aimed at clearing out unsold inventories and starting with fresh stock in the New Year. But the downside of these strategies is that there is a significant drop in supply chain efficiencies, as a result of which there is sharp increase in customer unhappiness which in turn affects long term business growth.
Another reason for increased spend on shopping, whether it is for oneself or for gifting purposes, is that there is more disposable income around this time. Employees may receive year-end bonuses or performance rewards or even a high return on their investments as December marks the end of the calendar year. For all practical purposes, December is when Indian families close their books of accounts in both the financial and the emotional sense of the term and look ahead.
Even if you live in places that are warm throughout the year, such as Mumbai or Chennai, December is when you buy woolens! I remember driving through Santa Cruz flea market in Mumbai early morning in the first week of December and being shocked that everyone on the road wore a jacket and a woolen cap, almost as if to say, December means winter and winter means woolens, never mind that it is not cold here! Imagine what the sales will be like in places which experience a real cold spell of winter!
Not for nothing is October-December known as the golden quarter in retail parlance. Well established companies in retail – both online and offline- literally have the wherewithal to meet the surge head-on in these months because it is built into their business plan. But smaller companies, especially the ones who promote their brand mainly on Instagram or Facebook do not have the resources to anticipate the surge nor plan for fulfilment and many fall by the wayside as a result of this. Getting on the bandwagon with the big boys is one thing; servicing a surge is altogether a different kettle of fish. And in the first quarter of the following year, you notice that many of the brands have disappeared after being heavily trolled.
December they say heralds the spirit of forgiveness, thanks to Christmas. But poorly serviced customers neither forget nor forgive
