According to the real estate trends report compiled by Merril Lynch, the number of malls in big cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune will touch 250 by 2010, which is over 100 at present.

Small format malls are also mushrooming and the real estate developers, nowadays, are in a mood to offer neighborhood shopping experience to their tenants complementing retail and real estate to each other.

Consumers too are largely inclining towards contemporary style of exclusive goods and retail models. The new models, being designed for retailing in India, are transforming the fragmented sectors into organized retail landscapes in India.

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“The present real estate scenario has offered us the opportunity to expand at a lower cost. It has also provided us the scope to reduce our average rental cost which will help us improve our bottom line,” Babu further added.

Into the business of mobile handset sales for over 11 years, UniverCell currently has over 200 touch points.

When asked about diversifying the portfolio of UniverCell to beat the slowdown, Babu reacted, “We feel that there are enough growth opportunities within the telecom sector to grow and hence would like to focus sharply only on telecom in the medium term.”

Elaborating the company’s plan to foray strongly outside south India, Babu disclosed, “We would like to maintain the focus on the South in the short-term before cautiously foraying into other regions. There are definite plans to expand outside south India during 2009-2010.”

Meanwhile Babu stressed that the company has adopted enough measures to ensure maximum footfalls at its outlets. “As opposed to the conventional mobile retailing, we provide the ‘live demo experience’ to customers, where we show them dummy phones or leaflets. Therefore, customers get to experience the handsets before buying them,” he said.

“Besides targeting the youth segment, we have continuously focused on improving our customer services to attract footfalls and despite the slow down, we continue to invest in marketing the ‘Univercell brand’ as the most preferred destination for buying mobile handsets,” concluded Babu.

Source : By Shailesh Shah, indiaretailing.com

“The present real estate scenario has offered us the opportunity to expand at a lower cost. It has also provided us the scope to reduce our average rental cost which will help us improve our bottom line,” Babu further added.

Into the business of mobile handset sales for over 11 years, UniverCell currently has over 200 touch points.

When asked about diversifying the portfolio of UniverCell to beat the slowdown, Babu reacted, “We feel that there are enough growth opportunities within the telecom sector to grow and hence would like to focus sharply only on telecom in the medium term.”

Elaborating the company’s plan to foray strongly outside south India, Babu disclosed, “We would like to maintain the focus on the South in the short-term before cautiously foraying into other regions. There are definite plans to expand outside south India during 2009-2010.”

Meanwhile Babu stressed that the company has adopted enough measures to ensure maximum footfalls at its outlets. “As opposed to the conventional mobile retailing, we provide the ‘live demo experience’ to customers, where we show them dummy phones or leaflets. Therefore, customers get to experience the handsets before buying them,” he said.

“Besides targeting the youth segment, we have continuously focused on improving our customer services to attract footfalls and despite the slow down, we continue to invest in marketing the ‘Univercell brand’ as the most preferred destination for buying mobile handsets,” concluded Babu.

Source : By Shailesh Shah, indiaretailing.com