When all is said and done, what every brand needs in order to survive and grow is revenue. Revenue is the single-most important factor in any business upon which the majority of decisions are taken. In a fast-moving industry with a dozen brands, and cut-throat competition, Nu Republic has firmly planted its flag in the sales and distribution space and has cracked the code to profitability. With their philosophy of integrating technology, design and emotion together to deliver a bold and funky experience to its consumers, they have a lot to talk about. We spoke to the Founder & CEO – Mr. Ujjwal Sarin and the COO of Nu Republic – Mr. Jitendra Saini to find out the secret of their success.
Q: Nu Republic’s Journey and growth plans ?
Ujjwal: Nu Republic was established in 2018 with a single-minded vision of reimagining the drab world of electronics in the fast-moving consumer electronics (FMCE) space. Since our launch, the brand has grown in leaps and bounds. Some of our notable products are Starboy and Starboy 3, with over a million products sold till date. The Flash X5 wireless eckband and Starbuds 4 true wireless earbuds claim mass and class appeal with combined sales of over 1.5+ million so far.The brand has also partnered with leading brands such as Nikon, HDFC, Accenture and others for their corporate rewards requirements. We have also forayed into offline trade, two years after our launch and expanded into the mobile accessories segment – growing from strength to strength by launching smartwatches and power accessories. We have now expanded our product portfolio to more than 100 SKUs that span across smartwatches, true wireless earbuds, neckbands, headphones and power accessories.
We are poised for major growth in 2023 and beyond. We have plans to induct world-class talent from leading universities of India and grow our workforce to 100+ people and beyond. We have already made some high-profile hiring hires by inducting Mr. Sachin Varshney to head our technology division and Mr. Jitendra Saini who will head our sales and distribution channels.
Market Strategy:
Jitendra Saini, COO, Nu Republic
Jitendra: Nu Republic aims to adopt a 360-degree expansion in General Trade, Large format retail stores, B2B (Institutional and corporate sales), and B2C (Business to Consumer). In General Trade, Nu Republic has earned a reputation as a Channel Friendly Brand. As per my understanding of the accessories business, we can categorize the Mobile Accessories industry into 3 segments:
- Unorganized Brands
- Online Brands
- Channel Focused brands
I can proudly say that Nu Republic is the only one or one of the brands among the few in India that have a “channel-friendly” approach.
Suprith S, Rgnl. Sales Head, Nu Republi
Modern trade: We are already present in most of the big LFR’s (Large-format retailers) in India like Sangeetha Mobiles, Chennai Mobiles etc.
B2B: We have partnered with clients like Cannon, Airtel, Nikon and many more prestigious companies.
B2C: Keeping in mind our channel-first policy, I am happy to say we have partnered with major B2C platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, BlinkIt, and many more.
What role does consumer behaviour analytics play in your business?
Jitendra: Consumer behaviour analytics helps us to understand the behaviour of customers and gain insight about who bought what, when, and via and through which channels. What we understood was that a large segment of the market was consumers, both online and offline who wanted something funky, something bold and different.
That is where Nu Republic stepped in! Our mission is to transform the drab world of music and present cool and funky products for the urban millennials who wanted something different, but at the same time, did not want to compromise on both quality and durability.
