Ahmedabad malls expect 75% rise in footfalls before Diwali

With the onset of the nation’s annual festive season, Diwali, the swanky malls and shopping complexes of the city are expecting an increase of about 75% in visitor footfall. The retailers along with the consumer durable firms are offering a plethora of attractive incentives like discounts, free gifts and interest-free finance options to rev up sales and perk up consumer confidence, according to a recently-concluded survey by apex industry body, Assocham.

“Malls in the city are likely to spend over Rs120 crore to Rs150 crore on decoration including contemporary lighting and promotional campaigns during the festive season that started in the last week of September and will continue until early November,” said Bhagyesh Soneji, chairperson of Assocham Gujarat Council while releasing the findings of their survey.
“Retailers and consumer durable goods makers are expecting an increase of about 45-60% in the sales during this period,” said Soneji. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) interacted with about 250 leasing managers, representatives of malls’ management, strategists, marketers and supervisors in the city to gauge their mood and preparation to engage and attract consumers during the traditional festival season.

A majority of respondents reckoned that the skyrocketing inflation coupled with ever-rising fuel prices and interest rates, the buyers’ confidence was shaken and they witnessed a dip in the footfall by about 20% during the first two quarters of FY 2011-12.

Most of the retailers and consumer durable goods makers said that they are gung-ho about brisk business during the third quarter and thus increased their overall marketing budget by about 30% for this period alone.

Almost all the respondents said that they have outlined marketing strategies and innovative promotional activities and value-added services to draw crowds and spur sales conversions during the upcoming festive season. These activities will continue till early January.

Promotional activities by malls involve product launches by celebrities, food festivals, mehndi and tattoo workshops by professional artists, cooking competition for women shoppers, exhibitions, gaming contests, tasks for kids among other fun activities and sponsoring gift vouchers, gift items like apparels, artificial jewellery, accessories and cosmetics for those who win contests, highlights the survey.

A majority of respondents also said that they have stepped up security systems and deployed additional personnel, installed metal detectors and CCTV surveillance systems across their malls to manage anticipated heavy footfalls.