NEW DELHI : Local arm of Japanese consumer electronics major Panasonic has accelerated the reach of its products into India's smaller towns, as covid-led lockdowns have prompted shoppers in these markets to buy new home appliances and electronics while they spend more time at home.
The company recently set up a separate function internally—Bharat Marketing—that will work on connecting with more trade partners, use technology to gather real time information on its inventory in smaller markets and also customize products to suit needs of shoppers in the country's tier 2, 3 cities and rural pockets.
“What we are doing we are now mapping India separately—which is the bigger cities and urban markets. All the universe of trade channels, the display of products and partners whom we deal with—will be separate for bigger towns and separate for smaller towns. So we have formed a function in our organization called Bharat Marketing with a focus group to create and execute a strategy towards smaller towns, rural markets," Manish Sharma, president and CEO, Panasonic India and South Asia said.
In small towns and semi-urban areas the company saw several "first time buyers" come in once the covid lockdown restrictions were eased. This, said Sharma, has prompted the company to accelerate its plans.
"Ideally this was planned for next financial year i.e. April, 2021. But we really understood that it was important for us to set up this focus group as immediately as possible because the opportunity is exponentially shaping up," he said.
Panasonic's range of home appliances such as direct cool refrigerators, one tonne air conditioners, semi-automatic top load washing machines, and small screen television sets already reach India's smaller markets.
Covid-19 and the subsequent restrictions on movement, that left millions spending more time at home, has pushed consumers to upgrade appliances and go for bigger refrigerators and television sets; shoppers also bought laptops and mobile phones as they work and study from home. In smaller cities, first time buyers have also shown up at stores asking for washing machines and refrigerators to ease household chores.
Moreover, with consumers turning frugal and cutting back on discretionary spends in a post-covid world, Sharma reckons they are spending on items they urgently require.
While most retailers, especially apparel and footwear, are still struggling with sales severely affected by covid, appliance and consumer electronics retailers have seen a surprising uptick in demand.
Sales in the month of June across retailers of electronics and appliances was 70-75% pre-covid levels, Mint reporters earlier.
Sharma says the uptick in home appliances and consumer electronics is likely to sustain, especially as penetration of white goods in India is still low. For instance, refrigerator penetration in India is at 34.1%, while that of washing machines is 14.3%, for air conditioners it is much lower 4.8%. While, LED TVs have a much higher penetration rate at 61.9%.
"This is a tectonic shift in the way we live, so in some sense it isn't just a pent up demand situation we are looking at, this is a situation which is going to continue," he said.
Reach and distribution apart, the company will also accelerate customizing products for such markets. This focus group will simultaneously identify products that need to be customized for those markets, Sharma said.
Click here to read the Mint ePaperLivemint.com is now on Telegram. Join Livemint channel in your Telegram and stay updated
