This Diwali, textile retailers to see a turnaround in their sales with customer spending rising. This season spending per customer per piece of clothing has risen to ₹500 from ₹200 last year also the online sales are picking up as well. The number of online orders for this season is around 5,000 as compared to 2,000-3,000 last year, said Velmurugan A, Manager, The Chennai Silks, a textile retail chain.

Jeyasree Ravi, owner of Palam Silks, said that apart from people in Chennai, the shop witnessed increase in the number of people coming from Tiruchi, Madurai and other southern districts for Diwali purchase. If the footfall is 100, outstation shoppers constitute 20 percent compared to 10 percent last year.

Another trend they have noticed is the rise in the number of young customers who come to purchase sarees. For every 10 persons who come to Palam Silks, five are youngsters aged between 20 and 30. They buy in bulk, ranging between six and 10, which was not the case earlier where per person purchase during the festival season was only two-three.

Industry players like RmKV and Palam Silks have launched light-weight silks that are easy to drape and comes in attractive colours and designs, in order to attract the younger crowd, who possess more disposable incomes.

K Sivakumar, Managing Director, RmKV, said that the recently launched Lino light silk was designed to attract youngsters. Lino light-silk is a part of the collection launched for the season. The price for the new collections ranges between ₹15,000 and ₹42,000.

Retailers like RmKV and The Chennai Silks as an add to their customer service are also planning to launch an app, which would facilitate home delivery of silk sarees within city limits.

The sales are showing a positive trend due to increase in customer spending for Diwali combined with the wedding season this year. Last year due to incessant rain, Diwali sales took a hit.