By Porisma P. Gogoi

New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS): With Diwali around the corner, industry players are betting big on sales of consumer durables like 4K smart TVs and larger appliances like washing machines, which are expected to see a surge in sales this festive season compared to a year ago.

Industry stakeholders say many consumers seek to make costly purchases at such times.

"Festive season is very important in terms of sales growth. Players in the market are looking forward to a 20-25 per cent increase in sales of consumer durable goods during the festive season from a year ago on the back of pent-up demand built in the run-up to the launch of the Goods and Services Tax (GST)," Anurag Sharma, Director, Akai India, told IANS.

"We are upbeat about the consumer sentiment during this festive season and are expecting an upsurge in the demand across all categories. The majority of products which sell during Diwali are LED TV (mainly high end) and washing machines. We expect major growth prospects in these segments," he added.

Akai India, which was re-launched in the country last year, recently expanded its consumer durables portfolio ahead of the festive season with the launch of new range of semi-automatic and fully automatic washing machines.

"Even consumers in smaller towns are buying high-end television sets, such as 4K TVs and large-screen models that were earlier limited to the big cities," Sharma said.

4K technology TVs provide better picture quality -- almost four times the quality of a normal high-definition TV.

Ritesh Ghosal, Chief Marketing Officer at Infiniti Retail, said growth was also witnessed in the sale of air conditioners.

"We are also seeing a lot of traction in televisions -- larger screens, OLEDs (organic light-emitting diode) and 4K TVs," Ghosal told IANS.

Infiniti Retail runs Croma retail stores -- with offline as well as online presence -- which offer products across the categories of home appliances, entertainment, IT products, digital imaging and communication gadgets.

"Pretty much everyone is upgrading to a smart TV," said Ghosal, citing cheaper availability of data and digital content which are the main drivers of the demand for smart 4K TVs.

"During these 30-32 days, starting from Navratri to Diwali, our sales are almost twice that of a normal month," added Ghosal.

According to an analysis by India Brand Equity Foundation, the consumer durables market is expected to reach $20.6 billion by 2020.

The report said the country's consumer durables market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13 per cent from FY05 to FY20.

"TVs and washing machines are the ones which get sold a lot because these are not season-sensitive and there is a lot of good offers that are going on in these areas," said Amit Sinha, Chief Operating Officer of Paytm Mall.

"Offers are there on quite a number of mobiles and laptops also. Geysers and all are relatively smaller (appliances) in size, but during this season they too are sold a lot," Sinha told IANS.

Pointing out the fact that the overall consumer sentiment is technology-driven, Rajesh Rathi, Business Head at Videocon, said: "Keeping this festive spirit high, we have come up with as many as 21 innovative products across our portfolio this time."

"We foresee good sales coming from our Eyeconiq range of televisions and Videocon 4K-HDR (high dynamic range) televisions as consumers are willing to buy technology-driven products during this period," Rathi added.