COVID Curbs Hamper Retail Sales In Jan, At 91% Of Pre-Pandemic Level, Says Retailers Body

New Delhi: Retail sales in January 2022 suffered due to the restrictions imposed by states in an attempt to curb the third wave of the pandemic, said a survey by Retailers Association of India (RAI).

The survey revealed that sales in January 2022 were at 91 per cent of the pre-pandemic sales levels (January 2019) as well as in January 2020.

While some of the states allowed for retail to function with fewer limitations responding to the decline in the number of hospitalisations, others like Delhi and Haryana continued with heavy restrictions. Nevertheless, the restrictions culminated into negative sales sending categories like beauty, wellness & personal care (-24%), furniture & furnishings (-12%), apparel & clothing (-7%) and footwear (-4%) back into the red as compared to pre-pandemic levels (January 2019), despite it being marriage season.

''Other categories that were on a steady growth trajectory such as CDIT too experienced a dip in sales growth rate,'' the survey added.

Retail businesses across regions have indicated a drop with sales in South India at 98% of the pre-pandemic levels (January 2019), North India at 92%, West India at 89% and East India at 87% of the pre-pandemic levels (January 2019).

Commenting on the same, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, RAI said that Responding to the steady decline in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisation rates across the country, most of the states across the country have allowed retail businesses to be open till late hours so that there is no crowding at any point in time.

''We do hope that Delhi and Haryana take a leaf from states like Maharashtra and allow all formats of retail to be open till late and be in consonance with practices across the country to accelerate the return to normalcy," he added.

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