Money, mobile & more

Sailing serenely in the franchise ship since 2011, The MobileStore Ltd is expanding fast and now has over 700 company-owned and around 90 franchise outlets across 100+ cities of India. In an interaction, Himanshu Chakrawarti, Chief Executive Officer, The MobileStore Ltd, shares his brand’s expansion plans and thoughts on franchising.

Tell us about your journey and company’s vision.

When I joined as CEO, I realised that The MobileStore is taking a major hit in its supply chain management, in-store experience offered to its consumers and affordability for its products. Since then the focus of the company has been to adopt an efficient and cost-effective supply chain model, provide international standards of in-store experience and make smart phones more affordable for the average Indian consumer.  The vision of our company is to be - The most sought after  Mobile Retail Chain in India that offers the widest range of live phones and tablets with the power of ‘live experience’ to bring out the power of technology for everyday consumer use.

What is your brand’s USP?

The MobileStore is a one-stop telecom solution shop. Once a consumer walks into The MobileStore, he/she does not have to visit any other shop for service provider and mobile accessories after purchasing a particular handset. Another USP is price protection. This serves as one of the major benefits to the consumer as the brand can be trusted in maintaining the price of its products for a specific period of time, thus, protecting the value of the product for a certain duration. The MobileStore makes sure that its franchisees do not have stock-outs as well as inventory piling up at the outlets. The company’s supply chain ensures that every product sold at the outlet is immediately replaced by a new one. We also have a robust backend to support the outlets with precisely the right amount of inventory at all times. The effective backend also supports its outlets with constant marketing activities to enhance sales.

Why franchising?

We cover all aspects of telecom retail which includes retailing mobile phones to service providers to mobile phone accessories to also warranty, theft insurance and providing our customers with after sales service like mobile repairs. Our drive and enthusiasm to take these services to every part of the country has inspired us to take the franchise route. The one stop telecom solution offered by the brand makes it unique and thus, beneficial for our franchise partners. Having our supply-chain, marketing and goodwill in place, the three most essential elements for franchising, has also helped us to take franchising model.

What are your expansion plans?

We look to have close to 1,500 stores present across the nation and have a turnover of close to Rs 250 crore per month.

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