The Hindu Business Line : MobileStore to step up presence, market share

Chennai, July 8 The MobileStore, the multi-service, multi-brand mobile retail brand of Essar Telecom Retail, is looking to increase its share in the estimated Rs 30,000-crore market from the present 4 per cent to 6 per cent, by the end of this fiscal. The company, which currently has 900 outlets, plans to double it by the end of the current fiscal.

“Our aim is to have a network of 2,500 stores across 600 cities in two years from now, thus covering almost every major town in the country,” says Mr Rajiv Agarwal, CEO and Director, Essar Telecom Retail. According to him, the stores are in large, medium and small formats, apart from shop-in-shop formats in some places.

Apart from mobile handsets, these stores offer connections (both pre-paid and post-paid), accessories, value-added services such as ring tones, wallpapers, DTH connections and gaming devices such as Playstation and X-boxes. It also offers after-sales service at these stores. Besides, “we also have a plan to foray into the computer space by selling lap-tops in our stores”.

To push sales, the company has tied up with some mobile manufacturers to launch their products through MobileStores, exclusively for a specific period – during which time the particular model will not be available anywhere else. For example, Samsung’s new SGH-i780 model premiered at MobileStores across the country. As per the agreement, the model will be available only at these stores for the first couple of weeks. “This arrangement will create a very positive initial buzz for this ‘business’ phone,” said Mr Sunil Dutt, Country Head, Samsung Telecommunications India. “Similarly, we have tied up with Motorola for its MotoRazr2, a ‘Ferrari’ special edition model. We will premiere the model before it gets rolled out to other stores,” said Mr Agarwal.

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