Textile retailers to see a turnaround in their sales in this Diwali with customer spending rising. This season spending per customer per piece of clothing has risen to Rs 500 from Rs 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,  Velmurugan A, Manager, The Chennai Silks, a textile retail chain said.

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 per cent compared to 10 per cent 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 Rs 15, 000 and Rs 42,000.