India's networking solutions market is experiencing significant growth, fueled by the rapid expansion of internet connectivity across the country. With an increasing number of households, businesses, and public spaces requiring reliable and efficient WiFi solutions, the demand for networking products has skyrocketed. In this thriving market, TP-Link is fulfilling the burgeoning demand with its wide range of innovative and affordable products.
It has cemented the position as a trusted brand in India's rapidly growing networking market. Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal recently held an exclusive interview with Mr. Bijoy Alaylo, VP – SoHo Channel Sales, TP-Link India Pvt. Ltd. He shared crucial insights about the market, their channel plans, product offerings, service support and much more. Read the full conversation below.
Rajeev: The surveillance and FTTH market is growing very well so can you please tell something about your product portfolio into this segment?
Bijoy: FTTH is a different industry altogether, so TP-Link has been a consumer brand right from the start. So we are focusing on the end consumer products that is the routers, the fiber routers and then of course the OLTs or back end part at the ISP level. We have more range of these ONUs as well as the OLTs being ported over here. As well as we have the fiber switches along with the other products. And in surveillance, right now, in the last four months we have increased our range. Four months back, we had around four cameras and one eight cell in NVR but right now the portfolio for TP-Link VG has been increased to more than 60 products.
We are getting more aggressive with more and more products, more and more technology. We have Tapo range of products which is a consumer level camera wherein the consumers can easily install these cameras and have a hands on these cameras. We also have the smart sensors, smart switches, smart light strips coming in.
Rajeev: Can you please tell about your Tapo camera? What is the USP of this product?
Bijoy: TAPO as a brand is more consumer-friendly, you can find everything on one app. If you develop your home with Tapo, you can control your smart switches, ACs and fans, that too on just one app. Also, if your baby is home alone or with a maid, you can watch the baby from anywhere in the world. You can control your devices wherever you are in this world. And, if you forget to switch off your devices from outside, you can do that too. So this is a very exciting product line for the consumers and the main USP of these products is that you get everything on just one app.
Rajeev: How do you see the make in India products getting positioned in the SoHo segment?
Bijoy: Make in India is just a shift of getting the products manufactured in India and getting it at a faster pace to the consumers. Earlier the products used to get made in China or made in Vietnam and the products used to come in late because of some import issues or some of the challenges on the clearance part.
The consumers used to get these products late so sometimes there used to be a stock shortage. Make in India is a big thing for us. Also, it is good for our country as well because after Make in India, we created a lot of job opportunities for the local people. We hire our own talent and use them in the country. So emotionally this is quite good for us as well as for the consumers. On the business level, this is very exciting for everybody because a lot of products can be made in India and we can proudly say that this product we are using has been made in India.
Rajeev: How do you see the market by end of 2023? What are your targets to achieve in this calendar year?
Bijoy: Basically 2023 is going to be challenging year. We have come from a period where covid was an easier period for the sales of our industry because the requirement was huge. But right now the requirement has come to a level wherein it will be actual requirement and not a bloated or not a balloon requirement. If I talk about the channel community, it would be a tough year to reach consumers properly. So projections are good enough. But we have learnt that we cannot project the sales that was there in the Covid period. So, we want more and more products to come into take that share rather than just increasing the share of what was selling in covid period or just after that. That is why you will see a lot of new surveillance products.
New Wi-Fi 7 is coming which is a very likable product for the consumers. We already have 60 orders from the consumers. It is a one lakh plus product. Wi-Fi 7, a router, itself one lakh plus but then a lot of consumers do want to have hands on this product because it’s a great thing to have new technology. People like technology and people want to experience new thing with them. The company is getting new products for you and it will be getting new technologies for you. And we wish that the partners as well as the consumers will always give preference to TP-Link preferably to be there at your home.
Rajeev: Please brief about your plans to educate the partners and connect with them in future.
Bijoy: Our partners are more keen to look at what the company's future is. Whenever I meet any surveillance partners, what they would like to know is what is the next level or what is the next step of the company. I feel partners are looking to interact more within the industry itself, learn more from what mistakes have been made in the past and not repeat those in the future.
So to gain that knowledge, we have more partner meets, we have more exhibitions, we have smaller partner meets. Also, what we feel is having a bigger partner meet, you cannot reach out to each and every partner so we have smaller partner meets. We have a roundtable conference where we discuss their challenges; we discuss how we can support them. And similarly, they also tell us about challenges they are facing. So the focus of the company is to reach out to the partners and know and resolve the issues.
Rajeev: How do you able to manage and create a strong service network across India?
Bijoy: TP-Link has always been believing that, ‘You Have to Be Reliable’. We always ask our partners to don't make customers wait. We have our national distribution network wherein we have more than 80 branch offices. From there, we reach to the consumers or they can reach out to us if there is any service issue, then we give them the solution.
We have more than 15 service centers all over India and we are increasing them with the third party as well as our own service centers. We have to be reliable enough for the consumer to select our product, not only because we have good technology, but also the after sales service is an important part.
