“Given the pandemic, we did face delays in raw material supplies” – By, Mr. Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO at SPPL, an Exclusive brand licensee of Blaupunkt TV in India

How does Blaupunkt plan to strengthen its supply chain network ahead of the festive season?

There are three huge sales coming up including the Flipkart Big Billion Day sale and since Blaupunkt has exclusively tied up with Flipkart as its eCommerce partner, we have been working on ensuring that we have more than ample stock to offer to our buyers and will make all of our latest models accessible for our customers to shop. We have been preparing for the sale since May-June of this year.

Given SPPL’s, the official brand licensee for Blaupunkt in India, the experience of more than 30 years in this ecosystem and supply chain, we are confident of the company’s performance throughout and especially the sales-heavy festive seasons.

In addition to this, in order to ensure that our SLA time is the least from the time a consumer places an order, we have over 28 warehouses in place across the country and our products will reach our customers in the shortest time frame possible.

How does the brand plan to double its target growth in the E-commerce marketplace this festive season?

We are offering all of our product range up for sale and are targeting 100% growth this festive season.

With the China Covid curbs that hit Indian electronics companies in a crucial season, how does Blaupunkt plan to ensure a smooth supply of products to its customers in PAN India?

Given the pandemic, we did face delays in raw material supplies. Our vessels reached us beyond the stipulated time.

Fortunately, we have been able to manage things now and are completely in stock for the upcoming sale. There is still some work left to be done for the next two sales, further stock needs to be fulfilled, but we know that our momentum is great and that we are on the right trajectory for it.

How consumers in India are gearing up to celebrate the festival season this year?

The year has continued to be hard for everyone given the pandemic. Additionally, on the business side of things costs have only been rising. There is a surge in raw material prices, fuels too and ultimately the rise in prices of freight and any kind of logistics services; expenditures across verticals for brands are at their peak currently.

We will, however, be ensuring that customers get the markdowns that they are expecting from us during this sale season. We will be running exclusive deals for our buyers base and also will put all of our models up for sale so that they have a variety to choose from.

Despite an overall grim scenario due to the virus, we are positive of the spike we will see in our figures just like we do every year.

Strategically, what’s the investment amount and revenue you are seeking to invest and earn this year?

We have invested more than 300cr into the business and will also be launching quite a few new models with new and improved technology and specs soo.

Will India’s e-commerce retail market boom this season?

India’s eCommerce industry is on a growth trajectory. The number of adopters had been increasing by the day and, given the pandemic enforced lockdown made even more people join the internet. Thus, the online shopper base grew.

The weariness to step outdoors to shop and the seamlessness and safety that online shopping provides to people has also enabled the eCommerce space to grow even more. Huge sales such as The Big Billion day, for instance, will further this growth given the attractive deals and discounts at which products will be offered.

There is a continuous shift happening and this has become even more aggressive right now. Currently, more than 30-40% of the TV sales is happening online which is a huge number for the industry.

One of the biggest fears of consumers in the retail e-commerce market is ‘How will the brand offer post-sale services’. How do you ensure that you provide the best services post-launch? 

Services such as installation, after sales and overall customer assistance, is a top priority for Blaupunkt.

We have invested and set up 500+ service centers across the country and are currently in the process of tying up with at least 200 more. It is the largest network ever for any brand.

Even during the festive sale Blaupunkt’s installation SLA will be less than 24 hours for all tier 1,2 cities and less than 72 hours for tier 3, 4 cities. This has been ensured keeping in mind the traffic and sales we get during the big billion Day sale and along with stock we are all set for securing the best assistance for our buyers.

Over this past year we have also increased our strength of service engineers thus shortening out after sales SLA time as well.

Our biggest advantage is that Blaupunkt is a completely Make-in-India brand and since having done end to end production in the country we always have MSLs ready and also any other kind of backend support that may be required.