UK’s leading tech company – Dyson – opened its first store in India on Thursday, launching a select range of products, including its much-talked about Supersonic hair dryer, connected intelligent air purifiers and cord-free vacuum cleaners.
The company has been holding trials of some of these products for over 18 months in India placing them in 150 households, learning the local usage habits.
Based on the insights, Dyson opens with a customised marketing strategy for India. Unlike other countries, where it has at least one company-owned demo store, in India, it will have at least 20 that will be set up over the next five years. The first of these opened at DLF Promenade Mall in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area. Over the next six months, it will open a demo store each in Bengaluru and Mumbai as well.
Dyson, which received its licence for Single Brand Retail Trade in India in 2017, announced it will invest over ₹ 1,200 crore over the next five years.
A unique strategy to be followed in India is that there will be concierge services to conduct demos at homes of customers as well.
As John Churchill, V-P for Floorcare category and Robotics at the company, points out that Dyson products that are fitted with a digital motor need experiencing and understanding, and hence, the stress on demos.
The demo service will begin in Delhi and Gurgaon to start with before expanding into Mumbai and Bengaluru later in the year.
In India, Dyson will also rely more on the e-commerce channel, through its own website as well as through a partnership with Amazon India.
Online channels will initially cover Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru and expand to other metros gradually.
The starting prices of the Dyson products are ₹34,900 for the desk air-purifier, ₹32,400 for the cord-free vacuum and ₹27,900 for the supersonic hairdryer.
According to Churchill, the products launched in India are new in class in the global Dyson portfolio.
Although the robotic vacuum cleaner has not yet been introduced here, he said it was a matter of time before it will be launched here too.