City-based mobile retailer aims at Rs 2,000 cr turnover in FY‘18

And the top boss of the company, with his sights trained on a turnover of Rs 2000 cr this year, believes its 27 per cent share in the offline space makes the brand the leader in the offline segment.

Talking to this daily, Uvaraj Natarajan, CEO, Poorvika Mobiles (P) Ltd, says, “There has been a 10 to 15 per cent increase in offline sales of mobile phones throughout India over the past one year. Take for instance Xiaomi, which is the leading online selling brand. Now, they have planned on coming offline, because they are unable to cross the 30 per cent pan India market share just with the online sales. They want a share in the remaining 70 per cent of the offline sales pie. 

So, now they are fully focussing on offline. Similarly, Motorola and Lenovo have also started full-fledged offline sales. College-goers and cost conscious, tech-savvy youngsters are the main consumers in the online model. However, everyone else is looking for a touch and feel shopping experience. I believe the future is going to be in the offline model.” 

Globally, from the US to China, online sales are dipping on a month-on-month basis and offline sales are shooting up in the mobile segment. Natarajan elaborates, “Most manufacturers were concentrating on the top line for valuation and no one was making any profits, including the online players, who were burning money. Major brands now feel that online might not be the safest way to do business. 

If you take the top 5 models across brands, they will account for 98 pc of the business. What happens to the rest of the products? They need to be sent to the offline channel, where every brand can be sold and can compete.” 

Giving us the lowdown on Tamil Nadu, he explains, “With respect to TN, 60 per cent of the market is dominated by feature phone or basic phones, which cost between Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500. In the next two to three years, we will see a complete shift of users to smartphones here. At this point in time, we have as more than 260 stores in total, with 42 in Bengaluru and 3 in Pondicherry. This year we intend to breach the Rs 2,000 cr mark in our turnover.” He adds, “Both demonetisation and the implementation of the GST came as a boon to the organised mobile retail business as the grey market dealers were forced to come to terms with the new tax regime.”

Tecno mobile, an offline premium smartphone brand of Transsion Holdings, announced a tie-up with Poorvika Mobiles, to kickstart smartphones sales in Chennai. Earlier in April, Tecno Mobile unveiled its Made for India ‘i’ series product portfolio in three markets – Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab. The company now expands its footprint in India by launching a range of smartphones in 15 states including Tamil Nadu. Anish Kapoor, CEO, Tecno & Infinix India, said, “We aim to replicate our success in the first three markets – across India and our target is to be among the top 5 smartphone brands in the country by the end of next year.”