Vaio dips by 40% in Jharkhand

Shortly after changing its channel hierarchy and related policy in Jharkhand, Sony India has been austerely hit in the eastern state with its sales figures for the Vaio range falling by a whopping 40% (MoM basis) across the state.

According to channel partners in Ranchi, Sony previously had 3 distributors in the state; namely Micro Infosolutions (MIS), Technocrat Infotech and JJ Infotech and was aiming to emerge as the market leader introducing new models with a very competitive pricing structure. In January, however, (according to its former distributors) Sony did away with its IT zonal division thereby merging its consumer electronics and IT range.

"Distribution ties with the local channel partners were done with and Sony started billing directly to the partners. The problem started thereafter", said Sushil Kumar of MIS.

According to Kumar, Sony had made their pricing and profit structure public and had shortened the credit period to 3 days. Previously, when the distribution model for Sony was in place, a discount of 5% was offered but after the change which the vendor ushered in, the discount percentage rose to 8%. Margins, as a result has been the hardest hit.

"Through distribution, I used to earn atleast 2% although I had to give a higher credit period. But now, after the change has taken place, in retail, I can only earn 1.5% margin and that too is not often guaranteed. As a result, I feel discouraged with Vaio laptops", Kumar added.

According to Kumar and most of the channel partners across Jharkhand, the channel companies now feel demotivated in selling Sony laptops as a result of which the monthly figures of Sony has shrunk dramatically.

Sources in Ranchi said that the monthly figure of Sony Vaio for the state previously was 650 boxes which has now fallen to just about 400 boxes.