Avenue Supermarts Ltd, which owns and operates the supermarket chain D-Mart, on Saturday said its overall sales and sales mix are now trending very close to usual times, though the consumption changes post COVID-19 still persists.

Lesser trips and higher basket values continue to be the norm and products such as apparel, laundry, footwear, travel and such relevant out of home usage categories are taking more time to recover, it said.

While, the company, which is expanding its online shopping channel D-Mart Ready after COVID-19 environment, has done soft-launches in select pin codes of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

It has leased some part of the space of its brick and mortar stores to Avenue E-Commerce Limited (AEL) to commence e-commerce operations in those cities, said the company in a post earning statement.

"The quarter has seen further improvement in our business and financial metrics. Our overall sales and sales mix are now trending very close to our usual times except for specific customer consumption changes post COVID-19," Avenue Supermarts CEO and managing director Neville Noronha said.

According to the company, the distinct behaviour of doing shopping more efficiently by shoppers still continues.

"Lesser trips and higher basket values continue to be the norm. While there is a general reduction in basket values compared to peak pandemic levels, they still continue to be relatively higher than pre-COVID-19 levels," it said. The company also continues to face inconsistent supplies from the non-FMCG sector.

"Raw material prices are also going up. Availability in certain categories is likely to get worse before getting better. This could therefore have an impact on sales mix and margins in the near term," it added. While talking about D-Mart Ready, Noronha said its is creating opportunities to launch it in more cities.

"However, we will continue with our approach of small trials, reviews and controlled acceleration for DMart Ready," it said. Besides, D-Mart also intend to continue extended store operating hours.

"This is allowing us to serve our customers in a more safe and efficient way," he said. As of December 31, 2020, the company had 221 operating stores with retail business area of 8.17 million square feet.

(Edited by : Jomy)