In the purview of the current global economic crises, will the consumption and employment be able to bounce back amidst this festive season?
Working through the new designs and stocks of sarees, 56-year-old Jayantilal Gupta recalls all his hardships his business faced during the pandemic. Owner of a wholesale shop in Delhi’s shopping haven Chandni Chowk, Gupta narrates how his business was flourishing in the pre-pandemic times. With successive lockdowns, crashing demand and the public dread of crowded places has taken a serious toll on his business. “Pehle toh September se hi bheed lag jaati thi market me (earlier, the markets used to get crowded from September itself)”, says Gupta. This is the plight of almost all the sellers and manufacturers across the country who saw their sales drying up with each passing day. With the easing in lockdown regulations and efforts to bring the economy back on track, the business owners are optimistic about the festive season which is just around the corner. Be it a small wholesaler like Gupta or big brands, everyone is hooking their hopes on to the ‘shopping season’.Will this wave of festivities bring some relief to the ailing demand and employment?
PRE- PANDEMIC SCENARIO
The bustling local markets during Navratri, deafening music from the loudspeakers on dandiya nights, going for Eid Daawat or even, getting the scariest look donned for Halloween party: all these seem so long ago. Isn’t it? The festive season, which commences in August and continues till January, sees a massive surge, often resulting in disproportionate increase, in demands of goods and services.Thus, it is considered to be the most important period for most consumer brands and sellers.
Surfing through the lanes of a crowded market, buying all the fancy decorative furnishings and people flocking into sweet shops! All these memories sit fresh in our minds. Not only consumer goods, but other industries like automobile, real estate and precious metals also see a boom in demand as buyers open up all their coffers and we finally convince our families to buy that ‘new car’ or a ‘brand new television.’
In the northern part of the country, the wedding season opens up with a bang, after a long break, in late October and is considered to be the period of ‘auspicious’ days for marital alliances. November and December are the most packed months of the wedding season during which prices shoot up owing to the incessant demand. Some of us might even remember attending multiple weddings in a day. How would one forget to mention the ‘taam-jhaam’ of Diwali preparation? A series of festivals fall around the same time as Diwali, like Dhanteras, Bhai Duj and Karwa Chauth.
Simultaneously, the western front is swaying to the beats of Garba during the celebrations of Navratri, the time when frolic is in the air. The eastern part, another end of the country, is immersed in ochre (sindhur khela), one of the rituals in grand fête of Durga puja, giving away themselves to the divine Goddess Durga.
Biryani and Sheer Khurma instantly reminds one of Eid celebrations and Daawat. Do you even get 100 knocks on the door when it’s 31st of October, for trick & treats? Halloween celebration is gaining popularity these days, and we like it that way.
Festivities are the harbinger of joy for all, even for businesses and brands. The consumption skyrockets, even forcing some of the businesses and brands to hire additional labour and increase their resources. All this fades away by the end of February when the major festive season retreats.
THE STRUGGLE FOR REVIVAL
While the e-commerce platforms are taking rigorous measures to gain back the buyer base, the future of offline sellers remains uncertain. In these times of crisis, the brands are coming up with new innovations to reach out to their customers at their doorstep.
The vehement efforts of e-commerce chains are quite evident as almost everyday some clearance sale, big billion sale or some highly lucrative efforts are going on, stimulating us to order all items in our wish list and even those high-end pricey goods we were yearning to buy since eternity (we all love a sale!).
Online fashion giant Myntra is quite optimistic after it saw signs of recovery and consumer sentiments picking up during Raksha Bandhan. It witnessed a surge in demand for women's ethnic wear, men’s occasion wear, kids wear, and accessories such as watches and handbags.
Along with our hopes, there is some statistical backing to the fact that things are getting back on track. As E-Commerce biggies such as Amazon and Flipkart have been ramping up their seasonal or temporary workforce to meet the expected order rush this festive season, overall 3 lakh temporary and permanent jobs are likely to be created in the coming festive months. Majority or around 60 per cent of new jobs are expected to be in logistics function while around 20 per cent may be hired for roles in warehousing and customer service functions each, according to the latest report by consulting firm RedSeer. Importantly, around 70 per cent of these jobs are expected to be created by e-commerce platforms such as Myntra and Snapdeal apart from Flipkart and Amazon while rest 30 per cent hiring would be at logistics platforms such as Shadowfax, Ecom Express, Delhivery etc.
FINGERS CROSSED
It’s quite evident that this pandemic is not going to leave us soon, but we have learnt how to cope and coexist with it. Governments and people all over the world are accepting this fact, though half-heartedly, that putting the lifelines of the country on hold can not be an effective solution to this global plight. The world is opening up, and so is the economy. Although the COVID stigma very much rests with us, yet the businesses are hopeful that this festive season will at least help them stay afloat, if not bringing in an immense profit, and settling all the accounts of hardship faced by them all this while.
Amidst this pandemic, we are seeing new colours of humanity each day. There is an emerging sense of an underlying humanitarian bond which can be seen quite evidently. The way how people are uniting to help small businesses like Baba ka Dhaba, it can be said that we have a long way to go, bringing back the lost smiles of sellers like Gupta and many others.
There is no denying the fact that this pandemic has robbed many people of their happiness, but we can all hope that may this festive season bring an end to all suffering humankind is facing and make things as easy as they were before, and we promise never to take those little things of happiness for granted ever again.
- Kartik Singh
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