Retail sales up 6% in April, says survey

New Delhi: Retail sales rose 6% year-on-year in April, indicating moderate growth for the sector, according to findings of the monthly Retail Business Survey by industry body Retailers Association of India (RAI).

Retail sales reported a sluggish growth in northern India, while markets in southern and eastern parts of the country led sales growth with a 7% year-on-year jump during the month.

Among the sectors tracked by the survey, Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) reported a growth of 16% in April, followed by food and grocery at 15%. Meanwhile, categories such as furniture and furnishings, and consumer durables and electronics (CDIT), reported annual growth of 14% and 9%, respectively, last month.

Growth in April was came on a high base of the previous year, retailers said.

“Retailers witnessed a modest growth of 6% in the month of April 2023. This is possibly explained because they had a super growth of 23% in April 2022 as compared to pre-pandemic period (April 2019) and 41% growth when compared to sales level in April 2021 (year-on-year),” said Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India (RAI). “While the growth of 6% in April 2023 vis-à-vis April 2022 is welcome, we will still have to see if the growth can get into double digits. We would await the results for the coming months to draw definitive conclusions,” he added.

Overall demand for more discretionary categories such as apparel and electronics has remained underwhelming. High inflation has also burdened households prompting them to cut back on discretionary spends.

RAI tracks business performance of retailers, both large and small, across India, covering multiple categories such as apparel, footwear, jewellery, food and grocery, fast food chains, electronics etc.