The Coronavirus pandemic has deeply impacted the mobile smartphone market in India. We have seen multiple smartphone companies shutting down due to the lockdown imposed by the government.
However, the mobile smartphone market is not just the worst hit in this situation in India it is the mobile accessories market. The market, which primarily based on smartphones, is suffering a lot due to the Coronavirus pandemic. But how it has been affected by this situation?
Mobile Accessories market in India:
The mobile accessories market was booming along with the smartphone industry. Consumers are keeping a close eye on making their smartphones look good with unique mobile phone cases and covers. They also pair their smartphones with the latest Bluetooth devices like earphones, wireless earbuds and speakers to enhance the whole user experience.
With the large-scale adoption of mobile phones in countries like India, the demand for mobile accessories is witnessing an upward trajectory. We have seen the offline retail stores flooded with lots of mobile covers and cases along with Bluetooth devices, speakers, cables, chargers, batteries and more. The mobile accessories market in India is said to grow at a CAGR of over 10 per cent by 2023.
Impact onMobile Accessories market in India:
However, with the recent lockdown imposed due to Coronavirus, the whole mobile accessories market has come to a standstill. So, Just how deeply impacted is the mobile accessories market due to COVID-19 outbreak?
The whole mobile accessories market revolve around the primary smartphone market. If the demand for smartphones is higher, then the demand for accessories will surely go up.
“One cannot simply go and purchase the accessories or mobile covers at this time. All these are primarily dependent on smartphone sales. The primary device sales are not happening, which has resulted in a standstill of mobile accessories. We are looking at a washout of about 30 to 40 days and for the offline market it will more as only limited people will go for the purchasing the device,” said, Navkendar Singh, Research Director, IDC India.
“Though I have considered most of the ‘Mobile Accessories’ as essential rather than non-essential products, till the Pre Corona phase, but with Corona, the dynamics of this industry will change vastly,” said Rajesh Doshi, Director, Zebronics India Pvt Ltd.
“The product range apart from being essential for every day’s use was also turning into a fashion or lifestyle category for reasons of affordability, style and high usage. But as the economy surely will take a hit worldwide with the pandemic, India cannot escape too from its clutches,” he added. Doshi believes that with the current scenario, the buying patterns of the consumers will change and they will be more focused on buying essential goods.
“Accessories like Power banks (which is a big segment) have already lost its purpose. In this given scenario the market is bound to drastically drop though temporarily but surely for not a short period.” Doshi said.
Mandeep Arora, Co-Founder, UBON believes that Coronavirus will have a direct impact on the technology industry and it will affect the supply of raw materials, disrupting the value chain of electronics and increasing commodity inflation threats. “The transition has LED to an expansion in working remotely and a growing focus on the end-to-end value chain being analyzed and de-risked,” he said.
Lalit Arora (Co-founder) Vingajoy strongly believes that the lockdown has led to a heavy loss in the market but nothing is more important than our people’s lives. Not only this, the decision of lockdown and suspending all the international flights has directly resulted in the discontinuation of import and export.
Mobile accessories market relies heavily on China! It is a true fact that the whole mobile accessories market is heavily dependent on China. Whether be it designing, manufacturing and supplying, China has become the primary source of a manufacturing hub for the mobile accessories market.
“The global tech industry — including India — is largely dependent on Chinese vendors for components, device designing and manufacturing, COVID-19 has caused significant disruption to the global supply chain. The closing down of Chinese factories and supply networks has further dented the consumer electronics business significantly,” said, Mandeep Arora, Co-Founder, UBON.
Gopal Jeyaraj – Regional Sales Head – Anker Innovations LTD, said: “Since China has started operating with 70 to 80% efficiency, stocks import is not a problem. But due to lockdown, traders are piled up with inventories, unable to clear payments and on the other hand stocks are expected to be returned back due to non-movement of business and assumption on consumer buying pattern change. Due to the fear, the consumer’s walk-in to a store will change drastically. Likely chances for consumers to move towards online buying. And majorly imports will have a high impact due to devaluation of Indian currency which leads to a hike in prices of products. It’s expected that the impact will be there for a few months, but hoping for things to get normal before Q4’2020.”
Navenkar says that there is a huge dependency on China for mobile accessories. About 60 to 70 per cent of the accessories are made in China. “For a market like accessories, the variety and cost are of most importance. These things require large scale and China has the scale and that why there are able to manufacture it at such a large scale. Furthermore, about 70 to 80 per cent of items are also exported to other countries as well,” he added.
Is there any silver lining in this critical situation?
The current situation can prove to be beneficial for the Indian market. The situation can bring new hope for the Indian market and it can become one major hub for mobile accessories market.
“At the same time I do see a silver lining too, ‘Export’ seems to be an opportunity for this segment players and once the world begins to revive again, Indian manufacturers are bound to get an advantage over its competing countries and ‘Make In India’ is expected to shoot up,” Rajesh Doshi of Zebronics said.
The Indian market can become a new destination for the accessories as one does not require high-level of technology to manufacture accessories like cases, mobile covers and more. “For headphones and everything else, big brands like Xiaomi and more are planning to bring the manufacturing to India,” Navkendar Singh said.
Singh believes that India can become the next big hub for the manufacturing, though, it needs to focus more on the exports for this segment. “If India becomes a manufacturing hub, big brands like Xiaomi, Oppo and more along with third-party manufacturers will start manufacturing in India. The whole manufacturing is not high-end in terms of value addition, though, it still requires large scale for producing a variety of products, while keeping the cost in mind. I think it will take time and it is not a bad idea to so, but India has to become an export hub for this market,” he added.
The mobile accessories market has seen a severe impact due to the Coronavirus outbreak. However, this has also resulted in a new hope for India to become the next big manufacturing hub for this segment. Hopefully, once the whole Coronavirus pandemic is over, India could thrive to become the next big thing in the mobile accessories market.