Lifestyle consumer tech brand Crossbeats is fast emerging as a name to reckon with in the audio and smart wearables segments in India. The homegrown company, in a short span of time, has struck the perfect balance between style and technology, and has been able to build a badge value that people aspire to associate with. Archit Agarwal, Co-founder, Crossbeats, speaks more about the brand, its product offerings and strategy to take India market by storm, in an interaction with Ramesh Kumar Raja. Excerpts:

Crossbeats is a relatively new player in the digital accessories segment. How are you positioning it in India which already is a hyper-competitive market having innumerable brands at different price points?

As a lifestyle consumer tech brand inspired by current movements in fashion, art, and music, our products are very design-centric. Our philosophy is simple – clean aesthetics, user-friendly features, and heavy attention to detail. Advanced technology, frequent product launches, appealing designs, and a competitive pricing have allowed us to create a fan following of our brand. With over more than 5 lakh happy customers, we have customers that have been very welcoming to Crossbeats exclusive range of audio products. Our customers love the designs and the engineering that has gone into each of our products and that how each product is designed to deliver.

You have a very limited number of product categories to offer. How has been the response so far and what’s your expansion plan to make Crossbeats large?

We understand closely what the Indian youth demands. Over the last five years, we have been able to strike the perfect balance between style and technology. There is also an increased preference for Indian brands and products. With such sustained demand, Crossbeats has been able to carve a niche where people are looking for a product that delivers on quality and is designed around their needs. Over the last five years, we have been able to build a badge value that people aspire to associate with.

In the upcoming months, we expect to increase our marketing and creating a clear value proposition for our end consumers. We anticipate partnering up with other big distributors in order to make our products available in the offline channels as well. Our marketing team is also working on launching new products that are loaded with industry-leading features.

What is the brand’s biggest differentiator?

Unique designs, adaptation to the latest technological upgrades, affordable pricing along with uncompromised quality!

Which among the product categories yielded maximum business for you?

We just entered the smart wearables category. As of today, the business is still heavily skewed towards our audio segment but we expect that to change as we ramp up our smartwatch category.

Which are the areas you are targeting and whom do you consider your potential buyers?

We are trying to build Crossbeats into a lifestyle consumer tech brand. As we evolve, we are focusing on providing our consumers, one stop access to all their consumer tech needs. Our current focus is the smart wearables category. We want to expand and bring in more advanced wearables in both audio and fitness category to our potential buyers, the youth of the country.

What are you doing to increase the recall value of your brand?

We are rigorously expanding our marketing efforts to create a high brand recall. We have partnered up with a few high profile influencers to help promote the brand on popular social channels. We are using traditional and modern marketing to ensure customers are able to see our brand when they are looking for a consumer lifestyle tech brand.

What is your approach to the “after sales service” which remains an issue for the majority of electronics companies?

At Crossbeats, it’s always customer first and we strongly believe in customer satisfaction. We provide 12 months of manufacturer warranty as a standard option and also have a dedicated customer support team to resolve customer queries of all types.

There is a parallel grey market in India thriving on counterfeit accessories and devices. How will you deal with them?

We understand that there is a big grey market. We are incorporating high end technological innovation that will allow consumers to cross reference the serial number on the products with our database to ensure they are buying original products. We are also looking to make the consumer aware of the authorised channels and distributor partners from where they can purchase original products.

What are your outreach and investment plans and which platform you are targeting the most- online or offline?

As a predominant D2C business, we are currently heavily focused on the online space. But as consumers are increasingly looking for products that they can receive the same day, we are slowly expanding to the offline category as well. We are tying up with big distributors and small retailers to ensure availability of our products across channels.

The pandemic challenges are now receding. How do you view this change?

Pandemic did certainly shake up the market and created a huge demand for smart wearables. People got accustomed to working from home and smart gadgets like TWS and smartwatches helped them tackle the chaos to an extent. Now, the pandemic is gradually easing out and many brands are able to pick up the pace to meet the demand.

Please tell us something about R&D and innovation at Crossbeats?

Crossbeats R&D team, along with the design experts, is constantly exploring the current scenarios to understand the requirements of the modern Indian youth. Our findings have inspired us to design and develop products with cutting-edge technology and high-end specifications. In the coming days, the market can see Crossbeats coming up with advancements to our noise-canceling earbuds with upgraded sound units and enhanced microphones and more new launches. In the smartwatch category, the market can expect technological upgrades like faster UI and improved health and fitness monitoring.