The Indian retail industry continues to face hurdles at the state and local levels making recovery all the more distant. The 4^th edition of the business survey conducted by the Retailers Association of India (RAI) reflects no sign of recovery with retailers estimating 64% degrowth in the first half of July 2020 on a y-o-y comparison.

Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India, said, “It has been a grim start to the second quarter of FY21 with retailers facing huge operational setbacks due to ad-hoc local lockdowns creating confusion and leading to supply chain and staffing issues. Supply chain & operations need to smoothen up to ensure that the upcoming festive season brings back the much-needed impetus to sales recovery.”

A few categories such as Food & Grocery and Consumer Durables have started showing some signs of improvement with overall degrowth now at 45% and 30%, respectively compared to the same period last year. Within the Consumer Durables category, large-sized retailers (>300cr sales) indicated degrowth of 21% y-o-y, whereas, within Food & Grocery, small & medium-sized retailers (

Categories such as Apparel & Clothing (-74%), Footwear (-74%), Jewellery, Watches & Personal Accessories (-78%), Furniture & Furnishing (-63%), Sports Goods (-68%) and Beauty, Wellness and Personal Care (-71%), and QSR (-73%) continue to descend rapidly even in the first half of July 2020 on a y-o-y comparison.

Region-wise findings indicated that all regions are equally beaten for sales growth with East at -62%, West at -69%, North at -68% and South at -58% in the first half of July 2020 on a y-o-y comparison.

The Indian retail industry has been at the forefront of implementing rigorous safety measures to ensure the complete safety of its employees and consumers. However, the local lockdowns and ad-hoc restrictions being imposed in UP, Maharashtra, AP and Karnataka are making a distressing impact on the retail businesses and on consumer sentiment.