BPL and Onida have something in common with Xiaomi and Micromax. It’s not what you think!

There are brands that make you feel nostalgic. Among the electronics brands, BPL, Kenstar, Kelvinator, Sansui and Onida evoke the same feeling. The once superstar brands who had once ruled the home appliance segment in Indian households are now depending on ecommerce portals for a revival, if not survival.

These brands are lowering their prices to compete against their gigantic rivals like Samsung, LG, Panasonic and many others. BPL has entered into a three-year exclusive sales deal with Flipkart to relaunch its brand after almost a decade. Also, three of Videocon's brands - Sansui, Kelvinator and Kenstar - are selling airconditioners exclusively online for lack of pull in retail stores.

Getting a good response from their online sales of washing machine, Onida has decided to sell TVs and ACs online as their presence in brick and mortar stores have become next to negligible. Amazon, Snapdeal and Paytm, too, are emerging as critical online marketplaces for these comeback brands.

"If ecommerce can account for 50% of white goods sales in China, it is possible it will scale up at the same pace in India in the next 4-5 years, which means a huge opportunity to gain back lost share," said Gulu Mirchandani, chairman and managing director of Mirc Electronics, the owner of the Onida brand. "The number of positive reviews we have gained from buyers in ecommerce helps to build the brand and viral marketing." Onida expects to gain a 3-4% share from ecommerce sales in one year, he added.
A recent study by Google and Forrester Consulting estimates that about 100 million people will make online purchases in India by 2016 and half of them would be new online shoppers from Tier 1 and Tier II cities.

A senior Videocon executive, on condition of anonymity, said that, online is better since competitors such as LG and Samsung are averse to such platforms. "The overhead costs are almost half in online than in retail shops. And there is a large breed of impulse buyers who purchase just on price in online," he said. The executive said it is lucrative to focus more on online for not-so-popular brands because building a sales team and offline distribution is both time consuming and expensive.

For most of these brands, returning to the market or expanding into new categories does not involve high investment. Videocon introduced its three brands into air-conditioners by utilising idle capacity, while others are importing products from China and launching them under their label.

Videocon wants to extend its Sansui, Kenstar and Kelvinator brands into new categories like microwave ovens and televisions only through ecommerce. Maharaja Whiteline, which was recently acquired by Europe's Groupe SEB, is also betting on online sales to revive the brand.

Groupe SEB India chief executive Sunil Wadhwa said the future belongs to ecommerce. "Ecommerce today can reach pin codes where it will be difficult for us to reach through brick-and-mortar stores," he said. The business of Maharaja Whiteline has doubled in the past six months in ecommerce.