MUMBAI|KOLKATA: Top retailers, marketers and ecommerce marketplaces expect upcoming festive season sales to be stronger than last year despite high fuel prices pinching pockets and depreciating rupee creating pricing pressure for electronic goods makers.ET spoke to a cross-section of large retailers such as Future Group Shoppers Stop , Arvind Ltd and Lifestyle International, top consumer electronic brands like Sony and Panasonic, and the country’s two largest online marketplaces, Amazon and Flipkart . All of them projected festive season sales, starting next month, to grow by double digits, with positive macro-economic factors such as 8.2% GDP growth in last quarter and near-normal monsoon rains expected to boost consumer sentiments. They also feel easy and wide availability of consumer finance will drive sales this year. “While challenges of depreciating rupee continues, we expect 10% growth for television during the festival period,” Panasonic India managing director Manish Sharma said. “Uncertainties of cost may pull the growth downwards. However, we still expect growth to be in double digits,” he said.Sony India MD Sunil Nayyar said the company will try to hold prices to boost Diwali sales. “In fact, historically we have noticed whenever the festive period spreads out over two months like this year, consumers tend to spend more since they can pool in two months’ salaries and earnings. Last year, the massive pre-GST sales had wiped off the Diwali sheen. This year, there is a lot of pent-up demand,” he said.Panasonic’s Sharma, who is also the president of the white goods industry body CEAMA, said sales of appliances like refrigerator and washing machine are poised for double-digit growth after the government in July cut GST on an array of electronic products to 18% from 28%. The companies dropped prices by about 7.8% since then, though some firms were forced to increase prices last month by 3-4% due to the depreciating rupee. Last year, massive pre-GST sales in June had impacted white goods sales during Diwali when growth rate was 5-6%. This time, companies expect consumers in large cities to increase their discretionary spending while demand from rural areas and small towns is expected to be stable due to good monsoon. For lifestyle retailers, sales peak during the festive season despite full-priced merchandise.This year won’t be any different, they say. Future Group expects doubledigit growth in same store sales during the season. “By keeping value for money price-points, we will keep discounts at minimal,” said Rakesh Biyani, joint managing director at India’s largest listed retailer.The festive period — starting with Onam in Kerala, and with Durga Puja and Dussehra across most of the country, and lasting till Diwali — is the biggest shopping period, accounting for 30-45% of annual sales for several consumer industries. While Onam has been a washout due to the Kerala floods last month, companies expect sales in the southern state to grow now as people pick up the pieces of their lives. “Diwali is never a dull season unless there is a huge macroenvironment issue,” said J Suresh, CEO at Arvind Brands & Lifestyle. “Higher fuel prices will not pinch Diwali consumers because the purchase sentiment is different,” he said, adding that his company expects 10% like to like growth during the festive season.Shoppers Stop MD Rajiv Suri said the retailer will rather give consumers a wardrobe refresh than discounting. “We feel customers, at least this part of the year, want something new and we want to play on that sentiment,” he said. Ecommerce firms Amazon and Flipkart will go all out to make this festive season their biggest in terms of sales, discount and deals, and finance options. They are expected to engage in a discounting war to gain sales in categories like smartphones, televisions and fashion, which together contribute almost 70% of their sales.The marketplaces have increased order volume from brands by 50-80% for this festive season over last year. An Amazon India spokesperson said the marketplace expects this season to be the biggest ever in terms of traffic, new customer, digital payment adoption and sales. Flipkart declined comment. Flipkart-Myntra is likely to start its Big Billion Day annual festive sales from October 9-13 this year.Amazon, too, will start its festive sale around same time. Ecommerce shipments are expected to increase by 60-70% during the first major sale in October with total sales of $2.5-3 billion on the back of heavy discounts on electronics, according to a report by consultancy and research firm RedSeer. Traditional retailers anticipate e-retailers’ share of the market to continue to grow, but they are confident that it would not be at the cost of brick-and-mortar ones.