LTE

Reaping the benefits of IT Retail

by VARINDIA 2010-04-22

Dell has continually expanded its retail presence in order to reach out to an increasing number of customers across India. “We will continue to invest in our marketing efforts and retail infrastructure. Today, we have a solid retail footprint; our products are available across the country at Dell Experience Zones at Croma, e-Zone and Staples and at Dell Exclusive Stores,” says Mahesh.

Dell products are available in India through direct as well as indirect, that is not only can the customers buy directly from Dell, but can also buy through its well distributed channel of resellers and large format retail. Dell has a few thousand resellers and sales affiliates and is also available through Croma and Staples stores across the country besides Dell exclusive stores in some cities.

Dell made its retail presence in India in April 2008 with its tie-up with Croma. “At Dell we constantly listen to customer feedback and found that, to effectively reach out to a wider customer audience, the retail channel was an important avenue to ensure physical presence, penetration and visibility of the brand and the product,” says Mahesh Bhalla, Executive Director and General Manager, Consumer, Dell India. “The idea is to offer convenience and the touch and feel experience to Indian customers who are looking at buying Dell machines. There are about 35 Dell exclusive stores in India and Dell also has a presence in large format stores including Croma and Staples besides presence in many resellers across tier 1/ 2 and 3 towns and cities.”

“Within large format stores such as Croma and Staples, we have ‘Shop in Shops’ which are Dell’s exclusive counters, with expert Dell sales staff for advising customers and helping them customize their PCs,” says Mahesh Bhalla, Executive Director and General Manager, Consumer, Dell India. Dell has continued to expand its consumer product portfolio available through the retail and reseller channel, launching products in the entry and mainstream segments as well as at the high-end market for precision craftsmanship (Adamo XPS), besides launching the highly popular Alienware brand for the gamers in India. “This has enabled us to grow our market share significantly, moving us to the no. 2 position in the consumer market in the last few quarters, with a market share of 15.4% during Q4 of CY2009, as per IDC India,” says Mahesh.

Dell’s channel program is focused on ensuring that the consumers get access to the products while making sure that its channel partners and resellers remain profitable. There are some nuances within the channel program, wherein certain formats allow the customers to take advantage of Dell’s direct model. However, these are all various channels to ensure that the customers have the choice of where and how they want to buy the Dell products.

Canon has over 380 primary channel partners, 13 National Retail Chain partners, over 4000 secondary retail points including 270 national retail chain store partners & 33 Canon Care Centers. Canon products are available in over 300 towns in India.

Canon has setup three Image Lounges each one in Gurgaon, Mumbai and Bangalore to showcase its consumer range of products. It has also set up four level IV and six level III service centres in top 10 cities and 32 Canon Care centres in the next 32 cities. Canon sales and services reach now extends to over 300 cities in India. Besides, Canon has various types of channels. Half of its sales happen from Conventional Photo channels.

LFRs have also started coming in big way. “35% of our sales comes from our IT and CE channels. And rest 15% is contributed by the LFRs,” says Shunichi Senda, Director - Image Communication Products Divison, Canon India P Ltd. “While our Printer partners have started looking at selling cameras as photo capturing and printing go hand in hand in most of our machines, CE Channels is also becoming very popular alongside.”

In keeping with its promise of enhancing the digital experience to its customers, Canon India has announced the launch Canon Image Lounge where the customers can touch, feel and try the products. “Canon "Image Lounge" exhibits the entire range of consumer product offerings from Canon, products like printers, scanners, projectors, digital cameras, digital camcorders and All-in-One device categories under one roof,” says Shunichi.

The Canon "Business Solutions Lounge" exhibits entire ranges of copiers, laser multifunctional devices, fax machines, document scanners, colour networked copiers, large format graphic machines, digital colour press and document, print and scan solutions under one roof. With an aim to educate and inform users, Canon has also announced the plan to set up 8 exclusive pro-zones in India and 80 workshops exclusively on wedding photography during 2010. The zones reiterate Canon’s commitment towards photography lovers in India. The pro-zones will have the entire range of consumer, prosumer and professional cameras on display where customers will get to touch, feel and experience the Digital SLR Cameras with combination of lenses and other accessories with expert guidance, enabling first hand information on the entire range of products and take an buying decision. Four Pro- zones will be set up in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad in the next 3 months.

Finally…

The retail segment with special reference to consumer electronics and IT products has evolved a lot over these years. Point of purchase environment, display merchandize and customer service play an important role in achieving customer loyalty and sales volumes. Today’s consumers are well informed. It’s just that slight handholding and last minute guidance that are required by the customer before making the purchase according to his/her needs. Training is almost necessary for both retailers and resellers.