Vipul Jain: Retail Guru

Vipul Jain today is the proud owner of Unique Infoways for which retail constitutes the major chunk of its business

Unique Infoways was founded by Vipul Jain in the year 1994. Right from his school days, Jain dreamt of being a business man.

After completing his BE, he trained with ICIM and within a brief period of six months he wanted to start his own business enterprise. So, he took the plunge into entrepreneurship. When asked what prompted him to enter into IT space, Jain replies, "In India, the computer era really blossomed in the early nineties. I too got swept into this IT wave. So, I graduated in computers and electronics and as computers then was the fastest-growing sunrise industry, I decided to venture into it. Those were very exciting times."

Retail King

For Unique Infoways, retail constitutes the major chunk of its business and its focus is strongly on the segment. The entire business got transformed through retail when it started e-future stores in 2009. In addition to retail, the company is also into institutional sales and services. Today, Unique has got an installation base of more than `400 crore in NCR region itself with various government segments, public sectors, corporate account, along with various multinational companies. The company has proved its corporate strength year by year.

According to Jain, "Retailing is all about ‘Customer Experience'. Showcase the product a customer wants, create a product need in the customer, and you have a successful retail enterprise." Hence, we further scaled up the retail experience in the form of ‘The House of Technology'(HOT). As in today's world, the Indian customer is well-traveled and exposed to beautiful stores overseas. He yearns for a similar shopping experience in India. HOT fulfils that need and offers him a beautiful shopping environment with global brands in IT and electronics. Our aim is to take HOT to a truly international level!"

HOT, an initiative by Unique Infoways, an IT and electronics re-seller, will be spread over 40,000 sq ft. The store aims to provide products from over 100 brands, including Apple, Sony, Panasonic, Dell, Lenovo, IBM, HCL, HP, Acer, Asus, Toshiba, Samsung, LG, Blackberry, Nokia, Motorolla and Canon, a release from Unique Infoways said.

Achievements

Year 2007 was year of achievement for Unique,where it was recognized by Lenovo as the largest system integrator across India. It was invited by Lenovo Beijing for global summit. It was the only partner from India apart from 5 other partners from US, UK, Philippine, Denmark. The company has added many laurels into its profile, it enjoys long and healthy partnerships with most of the IT companies.

New Plans

With the opening of 24X7 IT and electronic mall HOT, the company is targeting to sell 15,000 laptops, 20,000 smartphones and 3,000 LEDs TV in a month. Moving forward, it will open more such stores in those areas which has a population of 20 lakh. "Currently, our overall retail revenue is `150 crore. With this new mall we will becoming `500 crore company and our ambition is to make a global brand," he added. Apart from HOT, Unique also has 9 stores located in Delhi, of which 6 IT stores are exclusive and 3 are e-future stores. The company continues to expand its existing stores as well.

As the business is touching new heights, the company is strengthening its internal structure. Jain's prime role is to create a business according to the vision. The company has various verticals in every business have business heads to run the verticals in accordance with the systems that have been laid down. The business heads handle the day to day challenges that occur.

For Jain, the success mantra is you have to choose one of the two-‘Live to work" or ‘Work to Live". I have chosen "Work to Live". He looks at the challenges as key to success. In a highly dynamic and competitive business like retail, there are challenges and roadblocks every day. But if properly managed, these roadblocks become triumphs and successes.

Personal Front

Jain got married to Meenakashi in 1996 and has two children. His daughter Aayushi is studying in 11th standard and son Akshat is in the 8th class.