India Consumer Goods and Retail Sector Half-Annual Update - April 2021

The Indian consumer goods and retail sector staged a cautious revival in H2 2020 as consumers became inured to living with the world’s second most extensive COVID-19 outbreak. A sustained slide in COVID-19 cases from its peak in September 2020 helped to buoy Indian consumers’ spirits into the end-of-year Navaratri and Diwali festival period. ​With their savings bolstered due to months of enforced isolation, middle-class consumers began to increase their discretionary spending in H2 2020 despite diminished incomes. The pandemic has also conditioned Indian consumers to place a more significant premium on health and hygiene, leading many holdouts to capitulate and do their shopping online for the first-time. In observing this trend, Indian conglomerates have been on an acquisitive spree to extend their dominance online in the battle for consumers’ hearts and wallets. ​