Component business in India has again started picking up with rise in gamers and tech enthusiasts. The passing year saw many component brands bringing high end products to cater these emerging needs. But traditional partners hold the success of such brands. Abacus Peripherals, the leading distribution house in India aims to cater to every need of the customer in all parts of the country in the shortest possible time through wide channel network. Vipul Modi, VP Marketing & Sales shares his overall channel plans with DT.
DT: What have been the crucial milestones for your company during year 2017?
Mr. Vipul: Abacus has had a wonderful year in terms of brands associations. We entered the calendar year with the launch of BLAZE DDR4 – An addition to already existing Xtreme Gaming Series from Zion RAM; in Q2 we became the proud distributors of Corsair- The Global leader in Computer components,and have steadily increased the market share of the Inno3D GPU in India. We are overwhelmed with the consumer responses for our channel brands – Antec & Biostar who have launched some impeccable products in the Gaming vertical.
DT: What were the major challenges for distribution business in India?
Mr. Vipul: Talking about distribution, rampant availability of the refurbished products is one of the main reason behind distribution housessuffering a number of exasperating setbacks. The second challenge is channel liquidity. Uncertainty in the market due to implication of new rules and regulations had created liquidity concerns in the market.
DT: How has GST changed your business affair in year 2017?
Mr. Vipul: GST has created a significant impact in the Indian IT market. One that has worked most in our favour is the import of products through grey channel, due to GST implication the grey channel has been adversely affected which has created a level play-field for business in the IT sector. Going ahead, it will organize the channel and encourage dealers to buy genuine products. Overall for the IT sector it is beneficial because lots of new systems have been bought to keep proper accounting. Furthermore, GST has made relatively smoother flow of business across states for us.
DT: What’s your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in 2018.?
Mr. Vipul: We are currently working with 4000+ channel partners across 300+ cities and towns. With a vision tocarter partners present across the length and breadth of the country, we are setting up standard marketing policy for our partners,the plan is to give them revenue rebate on the top of the line products bulk purchases. Alignment of few channel activities has been planned by the marketing team for channel activation. This year however we will engage more and more with the end consumer, but being said that it will indirectly benefit the channel partner.
DT: What will be new vendor agreement we may see in year 2018?
Mr. Vipul: Abacus has set an aggressive mindset to increase the Brands in its existing basket. We are already in discussion with few brands and the financials are being set in place and we shall soon announce the news. We are clear that we want to cater only the high-end market where products and brands are associated with games or gaming industry.
DT: Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is the target for the year 2018? How do you plan to achieve this target?
Mr. Vipul: The fiscal policies and demand for alternate currency has created a significant market demand for high end computer components which has worked well for us. We have achieved a YOY growth of 25% and with addition of more global brands to the Abacus basket we estimate to achieve 30% YOY growth in 2018. Ourfocus is to bring more feature rich products and set up a system to help partners in effectively reselling of the High end brands.
