- The likes of Flipkart and Amazon had registered record consumer electronics sales last Diwali
- Amazon had pointed towards an increase in customers from smaller towns
- This new e-commerce portal will start operations from February 2019
Smartphone, laptop and tablets repair startup Phixman, is working on a new e-commerce website for retailing consumer electronics and smartphones in India. Shaad Rahman Khan, CEO & co-founder, Phixman, in an exclusive conversation with EFY Group, confirmed the development.
The e-commerce market for consumer electronics is currently lead by the likes of Flipkart and Amazon here. As per a report published by Redseer Consulting, Flipkart and Amazon were able to generate about Rs 19,000 crores of gross merchandising value (GMV) during the last festive season sale. The report also pointed out towards mobile phones as the category that dominated the sales and accounted for 55 per cent of the total GMV.
“We are in the process of finalising vendors for the upcoming e-commerce portal. Unlike many other e-commerce websites, the beauty of this portal will be its dedication to consumer electronics and smartphones. Phixman wants to take online shopping to every corner of India,” noted Shaad.
Offline plus online model
The company currently operates more than 75 stores in India. Shaad confirmed that the number will soon touch 400. It is a possibility that Phixman might use these stores as offline centers for delivering consumer electronics to different locations. In fact, the startup is already retailing accessories through these repair shops. As a matter of fact Phixman also owns rights to sell Realme smartphones in the offline space PAN India.
“Phixman aims to be one stop-shop for all the requirements of consumers when it comes to buying or getting consumer electronics repaired and services. We have already tied up with Realme and are in talks with many other consumer electronics brands as well. This e-commerce portal will go live in February 2019,” added Phixman’s CEO.
Last six months for the online channel
Xiaomi, one of the fastest growing consumer electronics brand in India, recently informed that it was able to sell more than 12.5 million devices during the one Diwali sales period. The growth for online players like Amazon and Flipkart has been record breaking as well.
Amazon, had earlier informed that 91 per cent of new customers were from Tier II, Tier III and smaller towns during the sales. Large appliances and TVs saw record sales over the 36 hours with nearly 10X growth over Amazon. The e-commerce portal had pointed out that almost half of the sales coming from lower tier towns powered by brands like Godrej, LG, Samsung and Whirlpool. Additional insights released by the company said that every one in five customers upgraded their appliances with exchange.
Home and kitchen appliances, as per Amazon India grew 8X. Customers bought one mixer grinder every three seconds and one iron every 4.5 seconds during the event. Top brands in this category on Amazon India included Prestige, Bajaj, Butterfly, Philips, and Lifelong.
