Happi Mobiles, a Hyderabad headquartered multi-brand mobile retail chain, is looking to enter the lifestyle products, triple the retail stores‘ network and double the topline to Rs 500 crore this fiscal.
The retail chain, which currently sells mobile handsets of top organised brands, will shortly get into lifestyle products like LED televisions, vacuum cleaners, CCTVs, said managing director K Krishna Pavan.
The company has also forged an alliance with Xiaomi to become Mi’s preferred partner to sell its online ecosystem products in the stores of Happi Mobiles. “One we are successful with the ecosystem products of Xiaomi, will look at teaming up with other brands for selling their lifestyle products as well,” said Pavan.
Currently having 46 multi-brand retail stores spread across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Happi Mobiles is looking to open at least 150 more retail stores during the current fiscal in the two Telugu states and look at expanding into neighboring states next fiscal. Each store of around 1,000 square feet to come up in towns of at least 1.5 lakh population typically involves an investment of around Rs 50 lakh, which will be met through investments from promoters and institutional debt, he said.
Each store of Happy Mobiles will have a live demo zone, virtual reality and augmented reality aimed at increasing the first-hand product experience, said executive director Kota Santosh. Apart from displaying more than 200 SKUs with wide range of international brands, Happi Mobiles will also have a separate decisive carpet area flaunting top line mobile accessories, he said.
The market size for mobile retail stores in Telugu states is currently estimated at around Rs 8,500 crore a year with national players like Reliance and Croma, regional players like Sangeetha, Big C, Lot Mobile, and Happi Mobiles, among others. While online accounts for around 20% of the market, the balance nearly 80% catered to by the offline brick and mortar retail stores.