COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire business ecosystem. the manufacturing sector took a complete 360-degree turn. With the unlock efforts and the implementation of the new safety guidelines IT and services sector has completely changed. Work from home is the new normal for most industries but not manufacturing sectors.

Rise of the new customer

In the last few months, the customer changed completely. Since the outbreak everyone was forced to stay indoors and adopted the work from home and learn from home model. As a result, content consumption on OTT platforms increased and hence, the demand for televisions with large screens. Even though the entertainment and manufacturing industry took the biggest hit, the demand for Smart TVs, laptops and smartphones continued to grow.

Sustained demand despite increased prices

With the third phase of Unlock India, sales of television were allowed in all three zones (Red, Green and Yellow) which lead to a major spike in sales of Smart TVs. Customers quickly adapted to ecommerce websites for contactless delivery keeping in mind safety concerns since the pandemic. On the other hand, there was an increase in the prices of television and there was no alternative for importing components in the world apart from China. So, TV brands took this as an opportunity and increased prices by 120%. Despite the surge in prices, customers responded well. In fact, a large segment of first-time customers emerged, who transitioned from normal TVs to smart TVs (as production of many daily reality shows was halted and OTT gained popularity)

Way forward with Atmanirbharta

Atmanirbharta mission gave a boost for investment in products for which we have been traditionally dependent on other countries. Especially when it comes to electronics, India relies completely on other countries, China being the major contributor. The value addition of Indian companies on LED TVs, is just 10-12 percent. One will be surprised to know that 20 years back, all imports from China were less than 2 billion dollars compared to today which is close to 100 billion dollars. Here, we can see the dependency of imports has massively increased. As a result, the local manufacturing has suffered for the last 15 years, with most sector operations shutting down and a shift from manufacturing to trading.

This is the right time for manufacturing units to upscale their facilities and become the global manufacturing hub. For complete self-reliance, India needs more components and panel manufacturers to increase our value addition to 40-60 percent. More companies should invest in India, especially in semiconductor plants. the government has played a vital role in the television industry by stopping CBU (Completely Built Up) sets and has given mandatory licenses to import CBUs in India. Until now, only handful license has been given only for couple of months and have encouraged to produce and assemble in India. This sort of trend of engineering is significant to become global manufacturing hub, along with that it will be the most important 10 years for industrial sector.

Festive season for revival

The upcoming season will provide the much needs boost to customer demands and we are expecting a growth of more than 150% in sales. Despite the increase in customs duty, we will be one of the most affordable android brands in the country. A huge spike is expected in demand with lowest prices unveiled on latest products, which makes the sale season very lucrative. We do not see pricing stabilize in the next 6 months; therefore, customer traffic is expected to be huge during the upcoming festive sale season.