A brand new avatar

Consider these numbers. Vodafone has 1.56 million sq ft under retail, with 9,880 exclusive stores. The country’s largest private telecom operator Airtel has 2,350 branded stores covering approximately 1.41 million sq ft.

Idea Cellular has 800,000 sq ft of retail space in the market, putting together 7,200 stores in 5,200 towns. Telenor, which currently operates in six circles, has 2,000 small format stores each measuring 130 to 150 sq ft, covering approximately 280,000 sq ft of retail space.

Clearly, the 2.0 version of telecom retail branding is changing the brick and mortar retail landscape with large footprints and a thrust on multichannel offerings.

As the adage goes, ‘retail is detail’. For Indian telecom players then, it is twice the detail. In a market dominated by prepaid consumers, with wireless tele-density around 78%, 300 million mobile internet users by 2017 (IAMAI) and an internet penetration of only 19%, a large retail footprint is a necessity to reinforce their brand and influence purchase decisions. “For a product like telecom, which is vastly distributed, there are two things you need to achieve: first, distribution and second, customer connect. A physical store plays a big role in strengthening customer connect,” says Rohit Bhatiani, director, Deloitte India.

The migration of customers from feature phones to smartphones presents a huge opportunity for brand stores.

“Every customer walk-in provides brands an opportunity to push their products and create a connect,” says Bhatiani. Branded stores can act as a platform to display new products, test them in-store, check the internet speed, facilitate downloads/apps etc. These aspects of the in-store experience are a must for India’s fast growing telecom space.

IDEA Cellular Limited