MUMBAI: When newbie Best Deal TV launched so late in the day as a home shopping channel, the naysayers emerged saying that CEO and cofounder Raj Kundra (the co-owner of Rajasthan Royals) was throwing good money after bad. The home shopping television market is dominated by south Korean major, which runs Shop CJ (erstwhile Star CJ Alive) and HomeShop18. And with DEN Networks setting up a joint venture to promote DEN SnapDeal TV Shop, the market was clearly looking crowded and competitive. Star India in fact took note of this when it decided to sell out its stake in Star CJ Alive to PE firm Providence Equity.
A month and a half into the business, Best Deal TV co-promoter Raj Kundra (the other partner is Akshay Kumar) says Best Deal TV is doing very well, thank you. He reveals that the newbie has managed to generate Rs 3 crore in sales in the month since its launch.
“We are on target to reach our first year's gross sales target of Rs 150 crore,” he says. “Our chairperson actually delivered the 10,000th order to one of our customers personally.”
The channel’s USP is that celebrities like Sonakshi Sinha, Malaika Arora Khan, Bipasha Basu and more, will be endorsing their products.
Kundra recently roped in well known home-grown kitchen appliances brand Sumeet Appliances to sell its reputed mixer grinder on the channel. The deal is for three years and will be renewed depending on the sales the product chalks up.
He reveals that the idea to join hands with Sumeet came from his personal concerns to address Sumeet’s distribution issues. Having known Sumeet Appliances MD Ajay Mathur for a long time, Kundra was surprised to know that the once leading kitchen mixer-grinder brand was having distribution issues.
“I was appalled to find out that most of the 30,000 to 40,000 Sumeet products, which were being sold in the market were all fakes. Ajay shared how it was next to impossible to lodge litigation at each and every fakes in the market. That’s when I suggested that they re-launch the product with Best Deal TV,” shares Kundra.
When asked if Best Deal TV will have exclusive rights in selling all Sumeet products, Mathur clarifies, “Not for all products, but we are introducing the new and improved Sumeet mixer grinder, the ‘Grinder Man’ through Best Deal TV, which will also have exclusive selling rights for it.”
Best Deal TV will, however, have to go through the grind if it wants to penetrate the Rs 2,200-odd crore Indian home shopping market.
