Mobile and electronics showrooms

The trade

How this trade really works

From the factory to the customer, each person in the chain wants something different. Most of what goes wrong comes from the gaps between them.

The brand and its distributor

Send you the phones, often with a monthly target and a scheme for meeting it. They want your best counter space and your staff talking about their model. When they cut a price, they may pay you the difference on what you still hold, but only on stock you can show.

The owner's main branch or godown

Usually receives the stock and sends it out to the branches. It wants every branch stocked without tying up money in phones that will sit. In many businesses this is where the owner himself sits.

The branch and its manager

Sells to walk-in customers, keeps demo pieces on the counter, and asks for more of whatever sold yesterday. He wants the popular colour in stock, his staff incentive, and no blame for slow stock he never asked for.

The salesman and the brand promoter

The salesman earns on what he sells, and often extra from a brand that pays per phone. The brand's promoter stands at the counter and pushes his own brand. Both decide which phone the customer finally takes home.

The customer

Has checked the price online already. He wants to hold the phone, ask for a discount, buy on monthly instalments, trade in his old phone, and leave with a free cover and screen guard.

Old models lose value overnight

When a new model is launched, the old one is suddenly worth less. Customers know it and wait for the price to fall. If your branches hold many of the old model that week, you either sell them below what you paid or wait for a claim from the brand. Either way, profit is gone.

Phones bring customers, accessories bring profit

The margin on many phones is thin, sometimes almost nothing after the discount the customer forces out of you. The cover, the screen guard, the charger, the earphones and the power bank carry much better margins. A branch that sells many phones and few accessories can look busy and earn very little.

Each branch thinks its customers are different

One branch near a college sells cheaper phones and loud covers. Another in a market area sells premium phones on instalments. Yet stock is often split evenly because it is easier. So the college branch sits on premium phones while the market branch runs out.

Demo pieces and returned phones quietly lose value

Every model needs a demo piece on the counter. Each one is handled all day, and when the model changes, it is sold at a discount or kept as a spare. Opened boxes and exchanged phones pile up in drawers too. Nobody counts their value until the year-end stock check.

Staff push what pays them, not what pays you

If a brand pays your salesman a little extra per phone, he will steer customers to that phone. That is fine when it suits you. But sometimes it means your slow stock of another brand sits while he sells what earns him more.

Stock moves between branches by phone call

A customer wants a colour that is not in this branch. The manager calls another branch, a boy is sent on a bike, the phone is sold. Nobody records the move properly. At month end, one branch is short and another has an extra piece, and nobody can explain why.

Online prices set the ceiling

The customer shows you the online price on his own phone. If your buying price is close to it, you lose the phone sale or make nothing on it. Your only hope is the accessories and the instalment offer.

Where the money quietly goes

What you cannot see today, and what it costs you

Which branch holds the old model on launch day

You know roughly what you bought. You do not know, branch by branch, how many of the old model are in each glass case. So when a launch is announced, you cannot move the old stock to the branch that still sells it before the price drops.

How much you held when the price was cut

When a brand cuts the price and offers to pay the difference, it asks how many pieces you held that day. If your branches cannot say exactly, you either claim too little or cannot prove what you claim.

Which branches earn and which only sell

A branch with high sales may earn little if it sells phones at thin margins and few accessories. A quieter branch may earn more. Without profit on each item, branch by branch, you reward the wrong manager.

Which accessories are dead on the wall

The accessory wall looks full and busy. But many covers are for phones nobody uses any more, and some chargers have hung there for a long time. That is money on a hook, and it never shows up as a loss until you throw it away.

Where stock really went between branches

When pieces move by phone call and bike, stock in each branch stops matching the records. Small gaps add up. You cannot tell an honest mix-up from a missing phone.

A season, the way it usually goes

The story you already know

It is September in Indore. The owner has several showrooms across the city, one near the college road, one in the main market and the rest in busy colonies. A popular brand announces its new model for the week before Navratri.

On the morning of the announcement, the owner asks each branch manager how many of the old model they hold. The answers come back through the day, some by phone, some by WhatsApp photo of a register. The college branch has several of the expensive colour. The market branch has almost none left and keeps getting asked for it. Nobody moves anything, because by the time the numbers are put together, the price has already been cut.

The brand offers to pay the difference on old stock held that day. The owner's accountant spends days collecting figures from every branch, and the claim goes in late and short. Meanwhile, the college branch is selling covers for phones that few people carry any more, and the market branch has run out of the fast charger. The festival brings crowds, but the month's profit is thinner than the crowds suggested.

What you can now decide

Decisions you could not make before

Move the old model before the launch

The day a launch is announced, see which branch holds the old model and which branch still sells it. Move the pieces across, record the move, and sell them before the price falls. Move it, do not discount it.

Claim the full price difference

When a brand cuts a price, you can see exactly how many pieces of that model each branch held at that moment. The claim goes in on time, with a clear record behind it. The money you used to leave on the table comes back.

Stock each branch for its own customers

Compare branches item by item. Send premium phones where they sell on instalments, and cheaper ones where students buy. Stop splitting stock evenly because it is easy.

Clear the accessory wall

See which covers, cables and chargers have hung longest, and for which phones. Move them to the branch that still sells those phones, bundle them, or stop buying them. Buy more of the accessories that leave the wall every day.

Judge branches on profit, not just on sales

With profit on each item visible, you can see which branch earns from accessories and which only moves thin-margin phones. Train the weak branch to sell the cover and the screen guard with every phone.

Keep staff to their own branch

Each salesman and manager sees only his own branch's stock and sales. They cannot change another branch's records, and every transfer between branches is recorded. Missing pieces become easier to trace.

Bill the right colour and memory size every time

At the counter, the salesman picks the colour and memory size while billing, so the stock record stays right. Billing carries on even when the internet drops during a festival rush.

Where you get ahead

Where your competitor keeps losing

You clear old stock while rivals are still counting

On launch day, your nearby rival is phoning his branches to ask what they hold. You already know, and the pieces are already moving to the branch that sells them.

You earn where others only sell

Most showrooms chase phone sales. You see which branches and which staff earn on accessories and which do not. Your profit grows without selling a single extra phone.

Brands treat you as a serious partner

Your price-difference claims are accurate and on time. You can tell a brand exactly how its models sell in each branch. Brands then give you new stock early, and schemes that suit you.

The same season, with Vyavora

The story, told again

The same September in Indore. This year all his showrooms bill on Vyavora. On the morning the new model is announced, the owner opens his screen at home and switches from all branches to each one in turn.

He sees that the college branch has several pieces of the old model in the expensive colour, and they have been sitting for weeks. The market branch has sold out and is still being asked. Before lunch, the pieces move across, recorded as a transfer. They sell over the next few days at the old price. When the price cut comes, he already knows what each branch held at that moment, and the claim goes to the distributor the same week.

In the evening he looks at the accessory wall across branches. The college branch has covers for old models that have not sold in a long time. He sends them to the colony branch where those phones are still common, and orders more of the fast charger for the market branch. Navratri brings the same crowds as last year, but this time the month's profit matches them.

Why the others agree to it

Everyone in the chain is better off

For the branch manager

He sees his own branch's stock and sales clearly, with nothing from other branches cluttering his screen. When he asks for stock, the owner can see why. When he is short, the transfer from another branch is quick and recorded, so he is never blamed for a piece that was moved.

For the salesman

Billing is quick, with the colour and memory size picked at the counter. Billing carries on even when the internet fails, so the customer is not kept waiting.

For the owner's accountant

GST is kept branch by branch and added up for filing. Price-difference claims from brands can be prepared from stock records instead of phone calls. Old records from Excel and PDF files are read in, not typed again.

What this does not do

Vyavora shows stock, sales, transfers and profit in each branch and across them all. It does not track individual handsets, repairs or replacement claims. It does not work out a brand's price-difference payment for you, but it shows what each branch held so that you can claim correctly. It does not run your finance schemes or exchange offers, and it does not tell you what will sell next month. It shows you what is selling and what is sitting, as it happens, and leaves the decision to you.

Straight answers

Questions people in this trade ask

Can I see all my branches together and each one separately?

Yes. One switch moves between all branches together and any single branch, for stock, sales and profit.

Can my branch staff see other branches' figures?

No. Staff are tied to one branch and see only that branch.

Does it handle colour and memory size at the counter?

Yes. The salesman picks the colour and memory size while billing, so stock stays right for each variant.

What happens when the internet goes down in the showroom?

Billing carries on and catches up when the connection returns.

Will it help when a brand cuts the price and asks how much stock I held?

Yes. You can see exactly what each branch held of that model. Vyavora does not file the claim, but it gives you the figures to support it.

Our branches keep old records in Excel. Do we start from scratch?

No. Vyavora reads the Excel and PDF files you already keep, so old stock and customer details come in without retyping.

Old stock standing in a showroom the week a new model launches is a discount you have not given yet.