Rashi to retail through lifestyle stores

Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd has planned to extend its Rashi Retail Program (RRP) to lifestyle stores by the next quarter to metros across the country. 

As part of this program Rashi has already started appointing IT retailers, stationers and consumable dealers to sell its product range. The RRP program, which kickstarted last year has established its network in the west and south India. In the west Rashi has tapped the Mumbai market while in the south its Chennai. But now Rashi has planned to expand in the west, south and also north and east.

"By the next quarter Rashi has plans to extend to Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad and in the South it will be Kochi, Coimbatore and Trichy. In Gujarat we have identified Surat and Vadodara," said Manish Aher, Manager (Retail Strategy), Rashi Peripherals, a Mumbai-based distributor. 

He added, "In places like Pune there are multibrand outlets therefore consumer electronic goods and IT products will be sold under one roof. There are 45 to 50 such outlets in Pune. However, in the South at places like Trichy there will be fewer outlets because of the type of location." 

Rashi is in talks with lifestyle stores at Mumbai, Chennai and other metros like Delhi in the north. "At Chennai we have planned to extend the retailing program to Landmark which is 40,000 sq ft big and sells everything from needles to property.

Then other stores like Spencers Plaza and Odyssey (another leisure shop) are also our targets. In Mumbai we are in talks with stores like Shoppers Stop," said
Aher.

Presently in Mumbai there are 280 RRPs and out of these 50 to 55 percent are stationers and the rest comprise of IT retailers and consumable shops. "This large number difference is mainly because the footfalls or consumers entering these stationery shops are high compared to others. Consumers are now making impulsive purchases due to which retailing will gain higher momentum," stated Aher. 

Rashi is presently pushing its Logitech range of products through retailing and will soon also market its Sony range of LCD monitors and Labtec range of products through the retail shops. 

Nancy Sudheer