Retail sales in India continued moderate growth for the month of June growing seven percent year-on-year, according to data from the Retailers Association of India (RAI).
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This, experts say, is likely on the back of inflation impacting consumers, forcing them to cut down discretionary spending.
For the month of May too, the industry recorded a seven percent growth, after growing six percent each in April and March. The slowdown in growth to single digits comes after the industry consistently recorded double-digit growth over the past year.
From a category standpoint, goods and groceries saw some improvement growing 15 percent as against eight percent in May. Footwear grew 15 percent while jewellery grew 14 percent.
The quick service restaurant (QSR) category continued to be slow growing at eight percent. Last quarter, QSR companies like Jubilant (which sells Dominos) flagged a slowdown in growth.
Categories like beauty and wellness (eight percent growth) and apparel (seven percent) also continued to grow in single digits. This comes on the back of consumers cutting down discretionary spending amidst high inflation.
Some retailers have also attributed this to both a high base from last year when revenge shopping was seen, and to the spending priorities of consumers changing towards travel and other outdoor activities.
In fact, some experts say the slowdown in retail also led to retailers extending end-of-season sales, offering high discounts to liquidate unsold inventory.
Sales of consumer durables and electronics also stood impacted due to erratic weather and unseasonal rains. For the month of June, this category grew seven percent, marginally higher than the five percent growth in May.
Several players in the industry that CNBC-TV18 spoke to said the summer season (known to be a leak season for the sale of cooking products) this year was a washout due to unseasonal rain with sales of cooling products declining by 25-30 percent in the summer season.
Among geographies, north India recorded the slowest growth in retail sales at five percent, while the east grew seven and the south grew eight percent.
"As consumers are now getting into their normal business routines, we are witnessing moderate growth over the previous year. We need to wait till the festival season to draw definitive conclusions," Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, RAI said.