Indian Retail maturing with time!
2010-11-23Retail is the new buzzword that is taking the Indian market by storm and the consumers have a big role to play for this sudden surge. Lifestyle is changing rapidly and so is their yearning to acquire new products - products that can enhance their esteem and standing in the society as also bring more productivity, convenience and ease of use. They choose to try these products before they can finally have them. This change is not only restricted to metros, but has rapidly spread over to smaller cities and towns.
TVS-E has started treading the retail path as a commitment to strengthen its entire POS range of products in the country. The company has covered 25 years of its journey focussing only on transaction products like dot-matrix printers and keyboards. But during the last three years, the company has become very aggressive in the POS domain, though the thrust on transaction products still remains. The POS area boasts of a complete range of products ranging from POS systems, barcode printers to receipt printers and label printers. To further strengthen this area and make its engagement even more strong, TVS-E has employed an exclusive sales force to sell these products.
“If we look at the POS area, TVS-E is the only brand which has got the complete range of products. If you look at any retail counter, you will see barcode printers from a different brand, printers from a different brand and barcode label printers coming from a different brand. But this is not the case with TVS-E, since you will get the complete range of products from our brand,” says P.B.Ganesh Kumar, Head-Distribution Sales, TVS-E.
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V.P. Sajeevan,
Director - CSP Division,
Canon India
" We are now following USA; 96% of USA GDP comes from the consumer. On this front, India is still way behind as we have come to only 60% of that. Today we have 36+ printing products only for consumers and 65% of our business comes from the consumer market. We are very positive about our CSP product "
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Likewise, Canon, which is close to hitting Rs.1,250 crore this financial year, is reaping the retail benefits. The company has decided to bring all those products that can fit into the retail category to this platform. It includes all its Consumer System Products (CSPs) that range from digital compact cameras, camcorders lenses to inkjet all-in-one printers.
“We are now following USA. 96% of USA GDP comes from the consumer. On the front, India is still way behind as we have come to only 60% of that. Today, we have 36+ printing products only for consumers and 65% of our business comes from the consumer market. We are very positive about our CSP products,” says V. P. Sajeevan, Director - CSP Division, Canon India. Canon's growth through LFRs was close-to 100 per cent last year and it hopes to take this growth further.
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Manisha Sood,
Country Manager, India and SAARC,
SanDisk Corporation
" Since the, start of our operations in India market we have been present thorugh retail channels as it is the most impactful route to reach out to the end consumer. Channel have played an extremely significant role in furthering the growth of flash memory in India. Our continuous role in furthering the growth of flash memory in India. Our continuous efforts in providing training programs at the distributors' and channel partners's level has halped consolidate the flash memory market "
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India is a huge market for storage solutions segment and has been witnessing rapid adoption of consumer electronics such as mobile phones, digital cameras, personal computers and digital music players. Capitalizing on the storage needs of the large, fast-paced Indian market, SanDisk has uniquely positioned itself to offer a wide range of products that are ideal for a variety of uses. The products include a range of cards for digital cameras and camcorders, USB flash drives, digital music players and cards for mobile phones. SanDisk's strategy is to work with key retailers and distributors to offer the broad range of SanDisk products. It has close-to 20,000 retail partners in the country and is also present in 1,360 Large Format Retail outlets so as to provide a touch-and-feel experience to consumers.
The company started its operations in 2006 and has been in the forefront to organize the flash memory market. “Since the start of our operations in the Indian market, we have been present through retail channels as it is the most impactful route to reach out to the end-consumer. Channels have played an extremely significant role in furthering the growth of flash memory in India as they act as a bridge between SanDisk and its existing, potential and prospective customers. Our continuous efforts in providing training programmes at the distributors' and channel partners' level has helped consolidate the flash memory market, ensuring that only authorized retailers carry SanDisk products,” explains Manisha Sood, Country Manager, India and SAARC, SanDisk Corporation.
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P.B. Ganesh Kumar,
Head-Distribution Sales,
TVS-E
" If we look at the POS area, TVS-E is the only brand which has got the complete range of products, If you look at any retail counter, you will see barcode printers from a different brand, printers from a different brand and barcode label printers coming from a diffrent brand. But this is not the case with TVS-E, since you will get the complete range of products from our brand. "
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TVS-E looks at the POS business through a dedicated arm of system integration partners and also its authorized software developer partner programme. With the software developer community on the one side and the system integration partners on the other side, the company is banking on the entire retail opportunity to promote its products. “Our understanding of the Indian POS business is with the booming retail coming in. There is going to be a huge penetration of local retail as well as the regional retail,” Ganeshan states. Of course, there is the national retail which is growing at around 40%, but moving forward there are lots of activities happening in the local and regional retail space. Especially in the hospitality chains (coffee chains and restaurants), POS products will see a deep penetration and TVS-E senses this as a good opportunity.
For the last 25 years, TVS-E has been spearheading a unique pan-India distribution model. It has made its presence in around 500 towns and has its direct service models in 300 towns. Banking, government, SMB and retail are the major verticals that TVS-E has its focus on. Manufacturing will also be a core area where it will be focussing, as Ganeshan feels that there is a lot of demand for barcode printers and barcode scanners in this space. When it comes to the government area, e-governance projects and Public Distribution System (PDS) are the big areas where there will be a great demand for POS products.
TVS-E has got both a direct institutional sales model and a channel sales model in place. Both are predominantly backed with a strong management programme and this is how POS products will reach to end-customers, besides the retail engagement.
In a diverse market such as India, wherein the consumers are varied, SanDisk feels that the significance of a channel community is grave and so it has a well-knit channel strategy in place that drives massive business growth and channel penetration. “In SanDisk, we work very closely with our distributors to deliver SanDisk memory cards, music players, flash drives and other key products that are in high demand by local consumers. Our strategy in India is to provide consumers with the highest quality products with the best value. We will continue to offer products that are ideal for a variety of uses including a range of cards for digital cameras and camcorders, USB flash drives and cards for mobile phones,” says Manisha. SanDisk has three major distributors across the country, namely Ingram Micro, HCL and Rashi Peripherals. All these distributors have local city distributors in each city.
Reiterating its retail objective, Canon India has lately launched its exclusive brand retail store called "Canon Image Square". The first store has come up in The Great India Place Mall, Noida, NCR region of New Delhi and was inaugurated by cricketer and Canon Brand Ambassador, Sachin Tendulkar. The retail store, which is based on the franchise model, will serve as a one-stop destination for people with imaging needs and will further boost sales and increase its visibility and reach across the country.
SanDisk has also recently created the concept of “Memory Concept Stores” to reinforce its presence in the Indian market. This breakthrough “Memory Concept Stores” are present across prominent large format retail outlets in India and represent the entire range of SanDisk’s portfolio. It brings a fresh new look to create a uniquely satisfying customer shopping experience. The consumers will be able to experience a wide variety of new products, ranging from USBs, imaging cards, to mobile memory cards.
At the beginning of the financial year, SanDisk introduced the SanDisk Memory Yatra which is a unique first-of-its-kind initiative to engage with the consumers of tier 2 and 3 cities in India, educating them on the “need and importance” of flash memory to explore their digital gadgets to the fullest potential and demonstrate the entire product range of SanDisk. This Yatra began in Jaipur around the festival of Holi and moved to Chandigarh during Baisakhi, to Kerala during Onam and to Pune and Hyderabad on Ganesh Chaturthi.
Future Retail Strategies
Come 2011 and SanDisk will continue building its retail presence in a growing number of key cities and urban centres and is leveraging the growth of the consumer electronics products such as digital cameras, computers and mobile phones. “Hence, our distribution and retail strategy will largely be geared towards creating SanDisk spaces in LFRs and create mindshare for SanDisk in India and create a brand that is iconic in terms of imaging, mobile and IT,” sums up Manisha.
Canon plans to inaugurate five other exclusive stores by December 2010 and aims at taking the count to 300 stores in the next three years. The stores enforce Canon's increased focus on penetration across the country, including major metros and tier-II & tier-III markets to enhance the brand awareness and increase sales. The outlet showcases a wide range of consumer products that include cameras, camcorders, photo printers, D-SLRs and lenses, inkjet printers, entry-level laser printers, consumables and accessories. Each store has over 80 SKUs on display. A customer can touch, feel and understand all about a product and then make an informed purchase.
TVS-E, on its part, aims to take up its POS revenue to Rs.100 crore within a span of two years from now. “We are having a dedicated engagement on this. We will continue to strengthen our existing range of dot-matrix printers, but our growth opportunity is in point of sale. Our intent is very clear - serve customers from the beginning level of automation,” adds Ganeshan.
Finally....
India has a large scope of growth in consumer products. No wonder, Indian brands are seen increasingly making use of this platform to showcase their consumer products. This is also the reason why A, B and C category of retailing is happening nationwide, as also in the local and regional space. Nevertheless, retail has still a long way to go and as pointed out by many, it will take some time before it comes out of its infancy stage.
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