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If you are planning to buy a phone and don’t want to lose on online discounts yet need the device in a few hours – you may now opt for brick and mortar stores over ecommerce portals as mobile phone retailers like <keyword id="141290" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-Mobile-Store">The Mobile Store</keyword>, <keyword id="248106" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Univercell">UniverCell</keyword> might soon be at your service. 
 
These brick and moratr stores will begin offering guaranteed delivery within four hours of placing the order by a sales executive who will handhold consumers till the new device is fully operational. 
 Besides selling through their own portals, retailers such as UniverCell and <keyword id="223516" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="HotSpot">HotSpot</keyword> are also tying up with price comparison engines such as mysmartprice.com and junglee.com, which will automatically prompt the companies to approach consumers searching for particular smartphones on their sites, the financial daily learnt from industry watchers. 
 
"The online stores have courier guys that deliver, and the person still has issues such as phone book migration and SIM cutting in case the new phone requires an alternate dimension," Alok Gupta, chief executive at The Mobile Store told the ET. 
 The process would include, company executives contacting consumers over the phone, assisting them in zeroing in on the smartphone they want to buy and deliver it to their home within a few hours from stores in the vicinity. At present, walk in customers account for around 60% of sales at mobile retail chains while <keyword id="818790" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="the-rest">the rest</keyword> comes from shipping or delivery-based sales. Company officials say that ratio of that would invert quickly once customers understand the promise of delivery. 
 Chennai-based UniverCell plans to offer buyback of an old smartphone in exchange of a new one and <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="finance">finance</keyword> schemes at your doorstep within a couple of hours of order placement. Gupta of The Mobile Store said the <keyword id="6425677" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Essar-Group">Essar Group</keyword> firm's sales executives will carry add-on products like protective covers, scratch guards, SIM alteration, and theft or damage <keyword id="35450" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="insurance">insurance</keyword>, that could be cross sold in bundled packages when they go for delivery. The focus would remain on selling smartphones because although it forms 17% of volume, it accounts for 30% of the revenue. 
 Mobile retailers hope that this strategy will help them get a slight premium on product prices that can boost their profitability through sales of ancillaries. Mobile phones are among the most sold electronics products in the country's booming online retail space where marketplaces such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> often offer deep discounts to attract consumers, a price traditional retail outlets cannot match due to their higher cost structure. 
 The <keyword id="113282" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Retailers-Association-of-India">Retailers Association of India</keyword> recently filed a petition in the <keyword id="6355014" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Delhi-High-Court">Delhi High Court</keyword>, seeking level playing field with online retail on foreign direct investment (<keyword id="44528" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="FDI">FDI</keyword>) rules, arguing that most online market places are operating just like retailers with their own warehouses and logistics operations. At the same time, traditional retailers are looking for ways to differentiate themselves in the online space. 
 
(Image: Reuters)

Watch out Snapdeal and Flipkart!
These shops promise to home-deliver mobile phones in 4 hrs

One of the companies that made big gains from <keyword id="3315394" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="demonetisation">demonetisation</keyword> is <keyword id="6354427" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Apple">Apple</keyword>. As soon as the announcement was made, people rushed to buy iPhones from their old currency notes, surging sales. 
 
Many stores sold iPhones and booked sales through back-dated receipts. According to estimates, more than one lakh iPhones were sold within three days. 
 
Thanks to demonetisation, Apple will be the only phone maker to meet sales target in November. Its sales during the month are estimated to have grown by 20-30% while handset sales, as a whole, are down compared with the year-ago period, said four industry executives. 
 
As per Counterpoint Technology Market Research, Apple India was on course to reach its estimate of selling 1 million iPhones in the quarter. It had shipped 4 lakh handsets in October, according to Counterpoint. 
 
"There is still a novelty factor for iPhones amongst Indian consumers since it is the costliest handset, and people were buying multiple units for themselves and to gift,” Subhash Chandra, managing director of South India's leading cellphone retailer Sangeetha Mobiles, told ET. 
 
Meanwhile, iPhones sales saw a drop in the grey market. 
 
"iPhones had a vibrant grey market that completely disappeared after demonetisation, boosting sales in large retail chains,” Subhasish Mohanty, who heads the business at 450 stores of the chains Spice Hotspot, Mobiliti World and UniverCell, told ET.

Apple made huge gains from demonetisation announcement; sold over one lakh iPhones within three days

Within four months of its re-launch, <keyword id="6354427" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Apple">Apple</keyword> has decided to pull out <keyword id="6354606" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="iPhone">iPhone</keyword> 4, its only phone priced below Rs 20,000. 
 
The move comes as Apple reported a global drop of $41 in its average selling price (ASP) of the iPhone to $596 in the quarter ended March 2014. Analysts blamed it on the re-launch of iPhone 4 and the slash in iPhone 4S prices in the emerging markets. 
 
Earlier, Apple said that it would continue producing iPhone 4, so that the company might compete better in markets like India, Brazil and China. 
 
One of its trade partners said the Cupertino company would now withdraw the product from all markets. According to another, iPhone 4 had served its purpose in India by doubling the consumer base for iPhones to more than 25 lakh in a year. As iPhone users are generally loyal to the brand, it's unlikely that they will migrate to any other, he added. 
 
Trade partners also said that iPhone 4s had turned out to be its top-selling phone after Apple launched a buyback offer worth Rs 7,500 last month. 
 
"With the buyback offer, iPhone 4s is now Apple's largest selling model by the number of units sold and also among our top five selling models," said Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO at The Mobile Store, India's largest cell phone retail chain. Following the buyback offer, iPhone 4s sales have doubled in the country, according to retailers. 
 
"It has been a tactical move by Apple whereby consumers are willing to pay a little more for a newer model," said Sathish Babu, founder of the cell phone retail chain UniverCell Telecommunications, referring to the buyback offer. According to a trade partner, a technical issue also played a role in influencing Apple's decision to pull out the iPhone 4. 
 
"Apple has been globally chided by the tech community for the poor performance of its latest operating system on iPhone 4 and hence, this factor, too, played a role... since it mars the entire Apple experience among first-time buyers," the source said. 
 As per a CyberMedia report, Apple's volume market share in the country’s smartphone market in the January-March quarter was 2.4%. <keyword id="10591" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Samsung">Samsung</keyword> ranked No. 1 with 38.9%, followed by Micromax at 19.1%, Karbonn at 6.9%, Lava at 6.1% and <keyword id="6354716" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nokia">Nokia</keyword> at 5.3%. 
Image Courtesy: Thinkstock

You Searched For "Univercell" and got 3 results

Watch out Snapdeal and Flipkart! These shops promise to home-deliver mobile phones in 4 hrs

BI India Bureau

Apple made huge gains from demonetisation announcement; sold over one lakh iPhones within three days

BI India Bureau

Apple Pulls Out iPhone 4, Its Only Phone Below Rs 20K

BI India Bureau

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