Store traffic matches last year
As markets opened on Monday, stores saw a somewhat cautious response from consumers resulting in 17% less traffic compared to same day (lunar calendar) last year; however as the week progressed, the footfall in stores steadily increased till 19th Ramadan where the traffic this year was 19% more than last year. On 20th Ramadan, however, the traffic was 4% less than last year which resulted in the overall traffic for the 4 day period (17th Ramadan to 20th Ramadan) 2% less than year.
While there is a general increase in traffic across the board, the data shows that population in some cities has been more cautious than others. The graph below shows the top and bottom 5 cities based on the % decline/increase in their traffic over last year:
Based on the data, it is obvious that there is a lot more congestion in stores as they serve the same or higher level of traffic while operating for only 2/3 of hours as compared to last year.
45% stores are still closed
While considering comparison to last year, it’s important to note that because of restrictions, a lot of stores have not still opened resulting in more foot traffic to stores that are open.
