Going online: Panjikas record 45% sales on e-commerce platforms
Times of India | 16 April 2025
12 Kolkata: Till a couple of years ago, Poila Baisakh usually meant a sudden surge of buyers at College Street, looking for panjika or almanac, traditionally used in Bengali households to look up wedding, annaprasan and puja dates. This year, boipara traders on Bankim Chatterjee Street and Shyama Charan Dey Street said, about 45% sales of panjika had shifted online.
Traders have also adapted to the online shift. They themselves have started to supply almanacs to e-commerce platforms, like Amazon and Flipkart, while a few of them have been selling almanacs on their own platforms. Bisuddha Siddhanta Panjika, PM Bagchi Directory Panjika, Madan Gupta's Panjika and Benimadhav Seal's Panjika are among the popular ones.
Tapan Das, a seller, said, "Near Poila Baisakh, panjika is still a bestseller. But now, most of the sales happen online. Earlier, crowds of customers queued up to buy almanacs at our stalls. Now, very few visit shops. E-commerce platforms procure almanacs from us to sell them online. Earlier, we sold 150-200 almanacs a day around this time. Now, offline sales figure has slumped to 30 a day. But we supply about 100 almanacs and calendars daily for online sale."
Ashim Bandhu Sarkar, a book trader, pointed at the price difference in online and offline sales: "I can sell a panjika for Rs 40, but it will cost Rs 90 online as it includes delivery charge." Purnendu Das, who has an online platform, said, "Sales started two weeks ago, when new almanacs were printed."