Nehru Place and IT Retailers Across India Reopen to a Price Squeeze

IT retailers  have been anxious about their sales almost dead because of the problems of Corona Virus pandemonium. This was complicated by the fact that many of the large IT markets are located in the metropolitan cities, most of which were in the Red zone and hence, were to remain shut even if supply chain began in the other parts of the country.

When in the 4th phase of lockdown  shops were allowed to reopen  in the Red Zone, while maintaining social distancing, this came as a ray of hope for the IT channel community., especially the IT retailers. However, the unfolding of the reopening process has shown mixed results for the IT retailers.

While sales have quickly ascended to a high figure after the reopening of the  IT retail shops, there have been some bottlenecks.

Alok Gupta, President, PCAIT, a channel association with a large presence in Delhi and especially Nehru Place, the largest computer market in Asia talked to DQ Channels about the preparation of the IT channels for the reopening and some of the problems they are facing.

"We had already planned for the following -

1. Even/ odd

2. Social distancing

3  how to sanitise visitor

4 how to restrict not more than prescribed persons inside showrooms

5. Sanitisation at every store while entering

We feel that there will be rush for the next 10 days as work from home and online education is at its peak due to lockdown

The partners have ample stocks, so fulfulling  demand will not be a problem from the stocks perspective.

Nehru Place is opened just 2 days back. We need to control small shop keepers and IT retailers; and the coordination process with administration and police is too cumbersome."

--Alok Gupta, President, PCAIT

"After lockdown our distributors/super stockists from where we are buying the products are now billing us 15%-20% extra from basic price in which we were purchasing earlier due to rise in purchasing cost and lower margin in our line. This is making our products  less competitive   in the market, especially against online prices.

We are going to our office according to the time our government is allowing us and are ready to face all the new challenges. I have been for last 30 years in business and I have faced bigger loses than this in business,  so we all are in this together and we hope that we'll be able to come out of it together.

I think our country has sufficient amount of stock in godowns . I can say distributors have enough to supply, but they are creating panic because of increase in the profits and prices."

--Rajiv Khanna, Spokesperson for Jalandhar Computer Dealers Association (JCDA)

“Small   IT  retailers  of  smaller  towns   are  happy &  excited    with  the  permission  of  reopening their  shops & offices.  Now  they can easily  provide  better  services  to  their  nearby customers  having    smaller  as  well  as  medium range requirements  -  from  toner  refill  to  webcam,  wireless  mouse, USB  HDD, power adapter, Router  to  PC/Laptop etc.,  as  well  as  repairing  of  their  Laptop/IT  equipment.

Since    courier  services  are  still not properly aligned  from  larger  cities, partners  are  fulfilling their  requirements   from  the  stock  of  other local  resellers of  city/nearby town, and this practice is improving  harmony  between  them.  Yes,   stock holding partners  have risen  the  prices  marginally,  at the same time  customer  is  also  ready  today  to  pay  premium   for   timely fulfillment  of  his  requirements.

We should not forget  that  many more   businesses  are still not  in  customer  demand  & are  not  able  to  even survive today.  Keeping  safety  precautions placed,  if  we are  able  to  promptly  understand   &  manage   customer  requirements,  there  are bright chances  of our survival  with long term  profits  in this  IT business.”

--Basant Mehta,  Proprietor,  BlueBell Computers

Founder President, Jodhpur Computer Dealers Association (  JCDA)