Interviews Archives ~ Page 13 of 27 ~ My Mobile India

London-based Gen Z lifestyle brand WK Life is all set to promote Make in India by starting its manufacturing units across the country and providing jobs for skilled people. The company has plans to manufacture 30 per cent of its products in India which will generate more than 3,000 job opportunities in the country. Rohit Sahni, Co-founder and CEO, WK Life, speaks more about this and the brand’s growing acceptance in India, in a conversation with Ramesh Kumar Raja. Excerpts: In an extremely competitive market like India which is already dominated by a number of small and big players, how has the brand WK Life positioned itself? We have tried to position the whole market under one roof. As we see that there are many brands in India that has products of different categories but there is no such brand that has as vast product line as we have right from the mobile accessories, fashion to bath and body range among others. One of the most important factors is that we at WK Life do not compromise on the quality of the product that has made us more popular among the conscious shoppers. Since you offer a wide range of products, from portable speakers and earphones to handset accessories and chargers, which among them is a dominant vertical for WK Life? We can say that the electronic category that has Bluetooth devices, speakers and other devices is our dominant vertical at WK Life. Other than this, fashion and personal care is also emerging as equally dominant category of the brand. How is India market different from other countries where you sell your products? We feel people are more conscious in India and we do not see much of impulse buying here. Whereas, in foreign countries people even buy products to just try as they like to experiment with new products. Indian masses are more into buying tried and trusted products and ready to pay a bit extra amount for high quality products. “People are more conscious in India and we do not see much of impulse buying here. Whereas, in foreign countries people even buy products to just try as they like to experiment with new products. Indian masses are more into buying tried and trusted products and ready to pay a bit extra amount for high quality products” Which platform yields maximum revenue for WK Life – online or offline? Our maximum revenue is generated from the offline segment as we were initially into only offline stores and we have more availability of products in our offline stores. With time and Covid-19 scenario, our online sale is also boosting up very fast and some categories like headphones and personal care are doing really well. How has India market changed over the last few years since the time you started operating over here? For us, the Indian market has not changed much since we started WK Life in India. WK Life got hit by Covid just a year after we started our operations and we do not see a huge difference. The market has just become situational right now. When the Covid cases are low, the sales are good and when the market is partially operational the sales dip down. What is your approach to the “after sales service” which remains an issue for majority of electronics brands? Since inception, after sales service was most important part of our band and we have concentrated a lot on giving after sales services. In general, we replace the products then and there if there is any complaint with product. We have less than 1% returns owing to the quality of our product. We do multiple level of quality checks of the products which leads to very less percentage of after sales services that we have to deliver. We already have a service centre in Delhi, and by the end of this year we should have around 30 service centres across India. Consumers can also raise their queries over the calls and by visiting their nearest stores. One can drop their products at our stores and we deliver it back to their location. There is a parallel grey market in India thriving on the counterfeit accessories and devices. How do you deal with them? The government policies are becoming stricter day by day and a lot of compliances have been increased that makes it difficult for grey market to thrive or survive for very long. So, we don’t see them as a threat in coming future. The brands like us who deliver high quality products at right prices do not have much to deal with the grey market. What is your vision for the next few years to be a go-to brand for millennials in India? Our utmost idea is to reach every household and cater to every group of people, this is why we are aggressively expanding our product range. Our vision is to bring the products that are not yet in the Indian market before it gets out of fashion in the foreign countries. We are slowly becoming an aspiring product for Indian millennials as they like to buy our product and showcase our products. What are your outreach and investment plans for India? We have already locked 100 contracts in India. By 2022 we should cross 50-60 stores of WK Life adding to the cities and locations. The company will still be bootstrapped and our investment will come from our franchise partners. Please tell us something about R&D and innovation at WK Life? We have 17 factories in Shenzhen, we are setting up 3 factories in India and two more in Shenzhen, so we should have 22 factories altogether for manufacturing of the products. We have 75 designers onboard and 30 engineers working day and night for developing new technologies and products. These products are only made for WK Life stores and available on the website and the stores. Every month we target to launch 50-60 products. “We have 17 factories in Shenzhen, we are setting up 3 factories in India and two more in Shenzhen, so we should have 22 factories altogether for manufacturing of the products. We have 75 designers onboard and 30 engineers working day and night for developing new technologies and products. These products are only made for WK Life stores and available on the website and the stores” What are the trends that you foresee will drive the consumer electronics market in the coming years? The market trend that we foresee in the coming years should be revenge shopping, as we have witnessed that after the first and second wave of Covid-19 people were very keen on going to retail shops and buying products after checking and trying it properly, and I believe some of our products will be trendy in coming years. I also see a boost in the electronics and gadget segment as a lot of people are still working from home and will continue to work from home in the coming years.

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