‘Luxury goods business will be dull this year’
BENGALURU: Now that we are hopefully moving towards the end of lockdown,I think a layered lifting of the lockdown is the right way to go about it. The government should not take off the lockdown completely as it could result in a spike in the number of positive cases. So doing it in a staggered way is perhaps the best approach. Giving an opportunity for the section of people who are most affected by the 40-day lockdown to operate is fantastic, as is allowing small business owners and shopkeepers to restart, and domestic helps to get back to work, irrespective of red, green or orange zones.
Large organisations have devised ways to deal with this crisis but smaller organisations are affected first hand. From a business point of view, I am into luxury products and the spending on luxury goods has already moved online. Since people are under lockdown, there is a pent-up demand for luxury goods. I feel discretionary spending is going to slow down for the foreseeable future.
People would want to save up and not go easy with their cash flow, so luxury goods business is going to be dull for the rest of the year, and businesses like ours are preparing for that. As far as our personal lives are concerned, it will take time to bring back the normalcy.
My assumption is that schools are not going to open till the end of September, so the first term for students is going to be held remotely. Work from home and online classes are going to be the new normal in our near future. We have to get used to our homes way more than we do now.