Filling the gaps

Envent, a consumer electronic brand launched in 2011, is scaling up to reach its consumers. With focus on retail and product development, Sukhesh Madaan, Founder and CEO, Envent, unveils his plans for this year.

Gunjan Piplani (GP): Starting off, how does Envent keep itself different from other IT product brands in India?

Sukhesh Madaan (SM): I come from a background where I spent 30-35 years working for brands like Sony Ericsson, Microsoft, Intel and others. I have also worked on consumer market, research to start off. I realised that there is a big void between what people want and what is being offered. The things that could have been made more affordable to the people have not really been so due lowered demands or other reasons.

We are more inclined towards youth or new India, bringing them products which would be affordable and functional. The kind of products we have including keyboards, mouse, headphones and also lifestyle product, don’t require much rocket science in terms of product development, but it’s just that nobody has thought about it.

We are planning to create niche with products including keyless or touchless keyboard and likes of the same. We will only be bringing innovative products which are not heavy on pocket.

GP: You have a very different product line. Would you like to explain our readers more about it?

SM: Our product range is divided into three categories, IT peripherals, lifestyle products and telecom. All the products in these three categories only ensure better productivity.

For example, people use smartphones of various brands these days and these smartphones eat up batteries very quickly. To help the consumers, we have introduced a battery boost case, which increases batteries by 2x or 3x. In our products, more than science, its logic what is involved.

Understanding the ground reality, we are racing with time and not offering cheap products. All our products are RoHS certified, which is a European certification. So, ideally all our products are globally acceptable in terms of being non-hazardous to the environment and health.

We are working hard in terms of both product development and after sales. We have tied up with third party service providers and also have our own service station for after sales services.

All our products carry replacement warranty.

GP: Now that you have products like battery boosters compatible to various phones, are you taking a step further to tie up with these brands?

SM: Right now, India is an open market and we can easily purchase products from multi brand retail outlets including Croma and likes. So we are reaching out to these stores as of now and selling our products through them. The response to the products is tremendous.

For corporate tie-ups, there is nothing concrete that has happened as of now, but we are now showing our products to various brands in the market and I think we are not a competition but the only product enhancers for them. We can be sold as an extension to their products which a consumer can opt for.

GP: You have been a part of the IT industry for long now, what kind experience do you bring to your company?

SM: The first foremost thing that I am bringing in is a systematic way of working. From the day one, everyone in our office, including me, has maintained our commitment sheets and we make sure we fulfill those commitments. Moreover, we don’t really work on paper and all our documentation is online which makes the complete chain of work very easy.

GP: How are you retailing your products in India?

SM: We have our distribution channel in place with regional distributors, strategic partners and multi brand retailers. We are present across 360 stores presently and the number grows every day. Going forward, we have plans to have our own retail stores for which we have even shortlisted a few locations. We see that the market has a void in terms of if a consumer wants to go and buy all the accessories, there is no one place to go. Every store will not have one thing or the other. With exclusive stores, we would ensure that people get every accessory they want at one place.

The exclusive stores would be named GAS – Gadgets & Accessories Store. It will take about three to four months to start off the opening of stores. For these stores, we will follow the franchising model and aim to have eight stores by Diwali and 25 by end of 2012 financial year.

GP: With gadgets being the hottest selling products online, what is your take on online retailing?

SM: Apart from physical stores, we are also present online. Our products are being sold through fove to seven websites currently. In terms of a standalone website, we will sell our products but not with much of focus on that. What we will ensure with our website is the availability of all our products which at a given point in time is or is not being sold by other websites.

GP: Who are your target audience?

SM: People in the age group of five to 50 years are our target audience with focus on 16-35 who use a lot of gadgets and have an inclination towards technology.

GP: What initiatives have been taken for product development and R&D?

SM: We indulge into a lot of research where in we move into the market to understand what people want. It is then that we indulge into product development.

We have tie-ups with certain manufacturing facilities for making the products.

We will be launching iPad 3 accessories for which production is on and the products will be available by end of June or early July. We are also working on Samsung S3 accessories and as far as lifestyle is concerned, we are launching breathe analyzer. With this people can themselves analyse the level of alcohol consumed.

Moreover, we are also bringing a weighing machine which will be as small as a notebook and can be carried around easily in a handbag.