What Apparel do consumers want for the Navratri-Diwali festive shopping season?

Announcement for the unaware souls: The golden festival online shopping period has started. Its Clothes & Colours Galore from Navratri to Diwali in the Online Shopping Galaxy.

Preetika, a young homemaker gushed that during Navrati she loves to buy combination of kurtis, sarees and tops in 9 different colours for the 9 days. “This year yellow was reserved for the first day of Navrati, green for the second and so on and so forth. I did go to the market but it was way too crowded and not to forget jostling with competitive shoppers is not an easy task since they all are looking for the same colour. So I ordered colourful tunics online! Can’t wait to buy silk sarees for Diwali”, she said.

The ongoing colourful Navratri festival has women and men across all the age groups hunting for traditional clothes in markets and online shopping sites. This fiesta will be followed by Durga Puja, Dussehra, Bakri Eid and Diwali till the end of October 2014. All of them call for new set of clothes to be worn or to be gifted. In simple words, this is the peak time for buying clothes and traditional accessories. No wonder, all online shopping sites no matter big or small are trying to woo customers by presenting festive clothes collection in attractive prices and are spending crores on advertising.

Offers by Indian Shopping Portals

All the big players such as Jabong, Flipkart and the relatively new entrants such as Indianroots and Jaypore that are known for their traditional Indian ethnic collection are running offers specifically meant for this festive period of September-October. Flipkart is appealing to women’s inner goddesses by offering designer lehenga and cholis at discounted rates. Jabong has made browsing easy for shoppers by tying clothes and accessories together based on colour themes, so you get to see Classy Orange, Ravishing Red and Plush Pink in one place. Whereas, Myntra is giving upto 60% off as part of their Navratri Festive Offer.

Indianroots has opened ‘The Navratri Shop’, clicking on which you get to explore Ghagra Set, Lehenga Set, Earrings, Duppata, Anarkali and much more. On the other hand, Jaypore kick-started ‘The Jaypore Saree Celebration’ today, 30th September keeping up with this month long festive season.

Straight from the Horse’s Mouth

IndianOnlineSeller spoke to Puneet Chawla, Co-Founder and CEO of Jaypore to get an insight on Sales of Apparel and Fashion products during Navratri – Diwali festival period. He shared that the estimated percentage increase in sales around this time is nearly a whopping 30-50%! According to him Sarees, Tunics, and Ethnic Jewellery fly off the shelf swiftly and hence they have specially planned Saree Celebration to mark this festive phase. When asked do only discounts work or unique products at a premium price find takers too, Mr. Chawla said, “Discounts can create a buzz but only authentic products and great service build lasting brands and businesses. We typically stay away from discounts to create buzz. Instead we reward loyal customers with deals.”

So here we have it. People are ready to pay justifiable price for unique apparels, especially when it comes to festive shopping. All they want is value for money.

Apparel Fashion Trends This Season

No prizes for guessing that traditional ethnic wear are in vogue around this time of the year. But what’s more in demand is fusion wear with a mix of modern silhouettes and traditional designs & fabrics. Traditionalists shop online for authentic ethnic wear, like Bandhani Garba Ghagra Choli during Navratri, Bengali Tant Saree during Durga Puja, and Banarasi Silk Saree during Diwali.

However, young buyers no longer want to put money on something that they can wear only once in a year. They want to invest in clothes that can be mixed-and-matched even after the festive period settles down. Thus pallazo pants, skirts, jackets in traditional prints & fabrics like Silk, Bandhani Chanderi, Batik, Kantha, and Ikat are hot this season. Light silk, cotton and georgette sarees are in demand too as they can be worn on other formal occasions.

The trend reflects that people are open to new ideas and fresh perspective on traditional Indian clothes. Also the online retail segment in India is expanding and making lesser known art & heritage work available in just few clicks to its shoppers. So buckle up Ecommerce owners & shoppers and cash in on this golden period of festive online shopping season.