Pent-up demand for home appliances, IT products driving sales in Unlock-1

KOLKATA: After a complete disruption in sales for two months during the lockdown, manufacturers of home appliances, white goods and IT products witnessed a healthy pent-up demand during the 'Unlock-1' period and sales are improving every day, officials said on Friday. There has been an increasing demand for household comfort products, while average ticket size in sales is also moving up, they said.

"Things are picking up as there is pent-up demand. In the cooking appliances segment, we are seeing a growth in the ticket size up to Rs 15,000. We will be able to come back to the normal sales for the business in the next 2-3 months," Usha International president (Electric fans, water pumps) Rohit Mathur told .

Panasonic India and South Asia president and CEO Manish Sharma said they are witnessing a 10 per cent growth day-on-day since May 7 in average sales.

"We are seeing an uptick in sales for grooming products, while pent-up demand for other appliances such air- conditioners, washing machines and refrigerators is driving sales," he said.

The organised retailers also reported a healthy pickup in demand after the restrictions were eased.

Ritesh Ghosal, chief marketing officer for Infiniti Retail Ltd that manages 'Croma' brand retail chain, said, "We have lost sales in April and May. However, as of today, we are witnessing a 45 per cent growth in sales as compared to the same period in the previous year, which is a measure of the pent-up demand."

Amid the shift to the "work from home" mode, the retailer is also experiencing a surge in sales of products such as laptops, routers, phones with front-facing cameras, he said.

As people are spending more time at home and want to become self-reliant, an increase in demand for products such as vacuum cleaners, food processors and dishwashers has been witnessed, Ghosal said.

"Absence of domestic help and "work from home" in the lockdown has created demand for small appliances, especially, OTG oven, food processor, induction cooktop and mixer grinder," Mathur said.

All consumer-product companies were focusing on an omnichannel sales strategy to achieve higher sales.