Physical retailers hit by marketing initiatives of online players

Not only their deep discount strategies but heavy advertising of their promotional activities adversely affected sales of physical retailers during the third quarter ended December 2014. According to the industry estimates, e-retailers spent around Rs 300 crores on advertising during the quarter, almost 10 times more than advertising spend of all the physical retailers together.

For example, Shoppers Stop reported just 0.8 per cent rise in its like-to-like sales during the quarter under review, its lowest in many quarters and 11 percent increase in last quarter. The retailer has blamed heavy investments of e-commerce companies for the decline and shift in shopping season around Durga Puja to the previous quarter.