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Business News/ Companies / Titan to offer more watches on EMI
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Titan to offer more watches on EMI

The company is extending EMI offer to all watches above `6,000 across its World of Titan stores in top eight metros

Titan currently has 430 such stores in 190 cities. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/MintPremium
Titan currently has 430 such stores in 190 cities. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint

Bengaluru: Titan is letting customers buy pricey watches on equated monthly instalments or EMIs to tackle increasing competition from both local and online rivals that are already doing the same.

The company is extending EMI offer to all watches above 6,000 across its World of Titan stores in top eight metros. Titan currently has 430 such stores in 190 cities.

Earlier it had offered sale through EMIs through its more upmarket watch format Helios that sells more expensive watches.

Arun Narayan, head of Helios at Titan Co. Ltd, said in the last one year almost 5,000 consumers have opted for this scheme.

The move comes at a time when large retailers are offering promotions in stores to encourage footfalls amid discounting frenzy from on-line retailers.

Titan announced a slew of measures across its jewellery and watches business over the past few quarters such as lowering making charges on its jewellery business to increase footfalls.

“Clearly online shopping has hurt most brick and mortar retailers. Since they (Titan) know they cannot match the on-line retailers when it comes to discounting, EMIs are a good way to lure customers," said Vivek Veda, research analyst—emerging markets (consumer) at Société Générale.

EMIs across sectors have eased buying in metros, where shoppers are willing to make more expensive purchases based on better payment options. Traditionally popular with cars and homes, the EMI economics has veered towards lower priced products, such as mobile phones and gym memberships.

Online retailers such as Flipkart offer EMI’s for products as low as 4,000 across categories.

The company’s 1,921 crore watch business has seen tepid growth over the past few quarters. For the quarter ended March 2015, volumes fell 6%. For the full year, the watches segment registered a volume growth of 2%. At World of Titan, sales value growth was up 11% while like-to-like sales (ie same store sales growth) moved up 5%.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Suneera Tandon
Suneera Tandon is a New Delhi based reporter covering consumer goods for Mint. Suneera reports on fast moving consumer goods makers, retailers as well as other consumer-facing businesses such as restaurants and malls. She is deeply interested in what consumers across urban and rural India buy, wear and eat. Suneera holds a masters degree in English Literature from the University of Delhi.
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Published: 30 Jun 2015, 10:35 PM IST
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