It’s that time of the year when your year long wait for clubbed office holidays becomes fruitful, and the festive spirits are high as ever. But, with the year being marred with the pandemic, are everyone giving up on ‘Dussehra’ and ‘Diwali’ celebrations? What about festival-related shopping, the biggest contributor to yearly sales? Is that going to take a back seat? From looking at the madness of online shopping that happened during the sale week (the yearly bonanza sales), nothing has changed except that it has gotten bigger!
It is reassuring to see how online businesses, that peak every year during the festive season, has continued its trend this year too. In fact, it has surpassed the previous years. With covid dying down celebrations, it was quite doubtful if festive shopping would thrive. Looking at the numbers that top e-commerce players released, it is certain that nothing can break the festive spirit. Social celebrations may be limited, but the act of gifting will continue. Most people have opted for gift exchanges through online mediums as the physical process is challenging this year. One method is by buying something via an ecomm portal and getting it delivered to the address of the person they wish to gift. There are few who opt for online gift cards, an option that has gained traction during this time. I recently stumbled upon personalized chocolate gift packs (on the chocolate brand’s webpage) where you provide the name and photo of the person/people you wish to gift and they’ll print it on the pack as a fancy gesture. The chocolates and gift bags looked pretty, and I was almost tempted to gift myself one of those but found it too expensive for self-indulgence in the name of a festival.
Honestly, I did not anticipate this year to witness huge spikes during festive sales for the sentiments towards expenditures had refrained in the light of covid losses (but I did my tiny share of shopping). The economy was slumping and huge shutdowns were witnessed in various industries. Many lost their jobs and many were awakened by the truth of life priorities. What seemed as essentials during pre-covid times were re-evaluated to conclude as frivolous expenses. Purse strings tightened and people resorted to minimum expenditures. However, with things returning to ‘new normal’, and people heading out (restaurants, hotels, parties to name a few), it seems that the ‘serious outlook’ (adopted at the onset of the pandemic) towards life has flipped. It’s probably too soon to draw a conclusion, or maybe, it’s just a dynamic space no one can predict. Obviously, it’s a wonderful thing to see how the bleeding economy is recovering but is it too soon to predict an upward trend already? After all, these were festival sales, and any such related sales will diminish with time (as witnessed in the past). However, since this year is a new scenario, any inferences at this stage shall be primarily inconclusive. Though the festive spirits will die down eventually, let’s hope the positivity accompanying it doesn’t fade with it.
