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| Edited By: Ashish K Tiwari |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 22, 2018, 02:21 AM IST
Seiko officially launched in India in 2007 and we have been doing pretty well. In the last five years, we have grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 25%. So it's been a very good market for us. While Japan is our biggest market followed by the US, India is still very small as far as turnover is concerned in the world perspective. However, India certainly is among the top three countries in terms of priority for Seiko Worldwide and we are among the top five, if not top three. That's also because any product that gets manufactured or launched by Seiko worldwide, is made available in the Indian market from day zero and in some cases even before nearby countries like Singapore, Dubai and other places. Basically, everything that is made for the international market is offered in India. The team also chooses watches that are more suitable for the Indian consumer.
Seiko plays in the affordable luxury segment and luxury segment. By that I mean watches below Rs 50,000 are premium and between Rs 50,000 to a lakh-and-half are affordable luxury. Anything above that number would be luxury. We start at around Rs 13,500 and go up to a crore and above. Our average price currently in India is Rs 25,500. As far as retailing is concerned, the ambience of the store, the display, the way a customer is entertained for the product, the way watch is shown is extremely critical of the overall process. We ensure that we only enter those stores that can sell Seiko watches while guaranteeing all of the consumer experience aspects. These are the hygiene factors as far as the brand is concerned, for sales in India. We are currently selling from about 385 multi-brand outlets (MBOs) where we have our exclusive counter, then we have six exclusive boutiques – two in Bengaluru and one each in Cochin, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi. Worldwide, we have 66 boutiques, out which six are in India and by 2018 we want to take that number to around 10–12 exclusive boutiques.
A little over four years ago, we also entered the clock category in India. Our clock business is also in the premium segment with prices starting at around Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 and going up to a lakh and above. In India, we are very house prone and a lot of money gets spent on interiors, furniture and other decorative pieces. So our clocks are more home decor than time-keeping pieces and the foray also been extremely successful for us. Within a couple of years, we have become the market leader in this category and are growing over 25%.
Globally, we compete with brands like Rado, Tissot, Tag Heuer and Omega in the luxury end. Worldwide competition and India competition is similar because best brands are today available in India, and India being a growing market, I think there's space for everyone here. In the premium affordable luxury segment in India, I would say we are among top three brands along with Rado and Tissot. Of course, they had a head start over us as they came to India more than 7-8 years before we came in. There's a disadvantage to that. As we came in late, awareness had to be built fast but the advantage is that we knew the mistakes that all brands did. So we didn't make the same mistakes. That's the benefit you get. It's been a good journey thus far.
There's no such research or no such exact figure available and that's why I said we are amongst top three brands in the segment. But if you ask the exact percentage, I don't think so anybody can quantify it perfectly for lack of data points.
Over the years, the consumer is getting younger in India and is getting more in tune with international trends. Initially, it was 35–40 plus age group that was buying Seiko. Today, I would say the range is 25–40 years. I think the buying power has also changed. With the years what happens is what a person can afford to buy at 40, now a person at 20 can buy. This is the natural economic change and it is being reflected in product consumption.
We only manufacture in Japan. However, there is a likelihood of manufacturing products in the clock segment in India. But that's not going to happen immediately.
You are absolutely right. For serious watch brands like us, I consider Apple definitely a competition, in fact, a huge competition. Apple will sure over the years improve its smart watch and create competition at a price point of $1,000. While that is the case, the flipside of this smart watch is also that a lot of people, especially techies who are also my friends, they never used to wear watches earlier. So, I would ask them how they could not wear a watch. They would confidently ask, "Why do we need a watch?" They have now taken to the likes of Fitbit, Apple, etc. A lot of them are now coming to me saying they would want to look at the range and buy one. So they are getting accustomed to wearing watches now. They don't want to wear the Fitbit or Apple everywhere as they don't go with every attire. They want serious watches now. So on the flipside, it is also creating more consumers for us.
I don't know whether we will get in or whether we have a movement going on for that or not, but currently, we don't have a product in that range or in that space. Having said that if you look at our Astron watches, they are intelligent as any of these but of course, they don't monitor your health or heartbeat.
We chose Amazon around seven months ago as our partner, but that doesn't mean we won't deal with Flipkart tomorrow. We might not look at other parties but definitely, Flipkart is on the anvil. We do business with Amazon and have a Seiko mini site on its platform. The response has been good considering we don't give discounts or too much discount. All I can say at the moment is that we have been meeting our numbers online and we don't want to jump into it. We want to tread cautiously.
