Pandemic Eats Up 3% Of Retail Market: Report

The pandemic-driven lockdowns and job losses have shaved off 3 per cent of the domestic retail market to around Rs 47 lakh crore in 2020 but it is on course to treble to around Rs 140 lakh crore by the turn of the decade, says an industry report.

On the back of years of double-digit growth, the retail industry had closed at Rs 47-48 lakh crore in 2019 but the pandemic has put paid it, as per the joint report by the Retailers Association of India and consultancy BCG. The report highlights how the pandemic has changed the buying preferences of consumers and the way consumers are expected to shop going ahead. It also underlines the import of these changes on retailers and the imperatives for them to win the post-pandemic world.

The domestic retail market was nearly Rs 47-48 lakh crore in 2019 but the pandemic led to a 3 per cent degrowth in 2020. However, the sector is starting to get back on its growth trajectory and is expected to reach Rs 130-140 lakh crore by 2030, the report said.

It said the decline would have been deeper had it not been for the kiranas and e-commerce which bounced back faster, while modern trade is now getting back to normalcy.

The report sees the share of consumption to GDP also steadily rising to 62 per cent by 2030 from 60.2 per cent in 2019 and 54.8 per cent in 2010. Of the total retail market, the traditional trade accounted for Rs 16-19 lakh crore in 2010, which on an annual 11 per cent growth jumped to Rs 45-46 lakh crore in 2019 and degrew by 4 per cent to Rs 43-44 lakh crore in the pandemic-ravaged 2020.

On the contrary, online retailing has been on a song, clipping at Rs 10,000 crore in 2010 to Rs 2-3 lakh crore in 2019 on the back of a massive 48 per cent annual growth in the decade and another 28 per cent growth in 2020, thanks to the pandemic.

According to the report, this frenetic growth will be driven by food & beverages (8.2 per cent growth) clothing & footwear (9.1 per cent), housing & household items (9.3 per cent), health (9.6 per cent), transport & communication (8.2 per cent) , education (10.3 per cent) and leisure growing at 9.1 per cent annually between 2019 and 2030.

Retailers will need to adapt to the shifts in consumer trends, build the resilience muscle and adopt digital technologies at accelerated pace to help them stay ahead of the curve, it added.

(PTI)