CXO of the week: Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, CEO and Founder of Gizmore

Gizmore is one of India’s Smart Lifestyle Accessories, Fitness Gear, and Home Audio brands. The home-grown company is a one-stop destination for consumers offering a diverse range of products including smartwatches, neckbands, headphones, earphones, TWS, multimedia speakers with trolleys, and Tower Speakers.

Founded in 2018, Gizmore has made a mark for itself in smart accessories, home audio, and smartwatch space. Supporting the government's Make in India initiative, Gizmore has chalked out ambitious plans for this year, including the development of a complete manufacturing ecosystem.

We recently interacted with Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, CEO and Founder of Gizmore. He shared important details about key offerings and key USPs of Gizmore, his entrepreneurial journey, the company’s growth, and much more.

Introduction.

Gizmore is one of India’s leading Smart Lifestyle Accessories, Fitness Gear and Home Audio brand. The homegrown brand was started in 2018 as a music accessory and fitness accessories brand but soon branched out its success into home audio and outdoor party speakers in 2019. With iconic design, superior quality and affordable pricing, Gizmore has established itself as a popular choice among consumers in the Indian market.

As an organisation, we are a team of vibrant professionals who are working together to make smart accessories in the audio and lifestyle segments accessible to a broader audience. Through our consistent efforts and performance-driven approach, we have been able to establish Gizmore among the top five players in the home audio and mobile accessory segment.

Our smartwatches & fitness bands have become an essential part of customers' lives. We established a countrywide network of over 15,000+  dealers across 225+ cities, to ensure the availability of our quality products across the country. Gizmore’s wide range of products are also available in 500+ modern retail outlets that include LFR chains like Reliance Digital, Croma, Big C, Sangeetha and on all major online websites.

Tell us how Gizmore as a brand and its products are targeted at the users in India.

Gizmore has a wide range of innovative accessories and audio products. Be it smartwatches, earbuds or speakers; we focus on introducing premium, stylish and easy-on-the-pocket products. With this unique selling proposition, we have established Gizmore as a popular choice in the target categories. The ultra-modern products with solid research and development have helped create a strong appeal for the brand in a short period.

Gizmore has launched targeted products focusing on segments like fitness, luxury, etc., and has created an impact in the market. Apart from launching unisex products, we have launched a women-centric smartwatch. The recent launch, Glow Luxe, is a luxurious watch with smart features. Launching tailor-made products for specific segments and forging exclusive partnerships with popular online platforms are critical components of our targeting strategy at Gizmore. We recently entered into an exclusive partnership with Flipkart for launch of our smartwatches. We are going strong in terms of numbers as we just sold over 40,000 smartwatches alone in October 2022.

What, as per you, are the five essential things that Gizmore should be looking at today?

Gizmore focuses on research and development, changing customer preferences, providing superior customer service, expanding offline and online reach and building a brand known for introducing ultra-modern products at an affordable price. These are the key pillars driving the brand's growth in the Indian market.

We have over 200+ service centres across the country. Each service centre has an in-house CRM to keep track of everything, ensuring all complaints are resolved in a time-bound manner.

As Gizmore has a wide range of lifestyle products, what is the USP of the brand?

The brand Gizmore has established the USP of offering high-quality premium products to the Indian consumer at a price point that does not burn a hole in their pocket. As a result, Gizmore products in competitive sub-segments like smartwatches, speakers and earbuds have been able to register their presence.

In the rapid-growing market, how competitive is the market for you in terms of sales and customer retention, and what challenges have you faced?

We believe in providing a superior customer experience consistently with technologically advanced yet affordable products. We operate in one of the most competitive sub-segments – smartwatches, TWS and Bluetooth speakers. These segments are rapidly growing and are witnessing a lot of competition.

The key challenge has been to meet the increasing demand from these categories. It is a good problem to have. We plan to keep our focus on strengthening the competitive edge further by launching targeted products for a specific segment of consumers.

Are there any plans for global expansion for Gizmore as a lifestyle brand?

We are already present in Nepal for over a year now and are selling well in the country. Other markets like Bangladesh and the Middle East are also part of our international expansion plans.

Shed some light on how important it is for all the homegrown brands to be self-reliant and for the overall national economy.

India has emerged as a strong mobile phone and smart accessories manufacturer in the last few years. According to a report, homegrown brands have captured a 75% share of the Indian smartwatch market in 2021.

When we launched Gizmore in 2018, most products in our portfolio were imported. However, with the government backing the industry with initiatives like Make in India, the PLI scheme and other related initiatives, we began shifting our manufacturing to India. We started with smaller categories like earphones, chargers and power banks and then moved to different segments. Currently, nearly 80% of our speaker portfolio is made in India.

It is expected that the manufacturing ecosystem will grow at a rapid pace in the future. Indian brands must be self-reliant for better operational efficiency and the country's overall economic development.

What would you like to say to all the young entrepreneurs out there trying to achieve success in business?

Building a successful start-up needs discipline, determination and commitment from the founders and the rest of the team. The business is better off focusing on long-term success than shortcuts for immediate wins.