"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" This age old adage couldn’t be truer in the exemplary case of Mr. WahidBadami, owner of an electronics outlet Brand “Marvans Mobile” based out of Vadodara, Gujarat. A self made entrepreneur, Mr. Wahid started with nothing, and grew thebusiness into a thriving operation, making it the favourite store for all thingsApple – in, and around the city. Scaling any business is not a small feat,especially in the highly competitive retail electronics category. Here is anaccount to cover and understand how he successfully grew his retail storebusiness in a highly competitive and commoditized market by focussing on thefundamentals.
Advertisement
The Origin Story
The idea for the business originated around 2012. Someone who always admired Apple and its products, he couldn’t help but think about how more people would be able to enjoy and use these quality products if they were more affordable and accessible. The well intentioned, but naive thought, led him to plan out and understand how exactly he could go about opening a store and providing the service he wants to.The first Marvans Mobile store was opened in 2013. 9 years later, Marvans Mobile is one of the most successful electronics retail outlet in the city with a thriving online business scaling every day.
Advertisement
The Digital Journey
Many brick and mortar stores have their operations running successfully on the ground, but very few achieve a following and fame on social media to the tune of Marvans Mobile. With almost 3 lac followers on instagram and acombined total of 5 lac followers across all social media platforms, MarvansMobile is one of the most followed accounts of its category. Mr. Wahid pointsout that a few things that helped him a lot have been – being open to new ideas, and understanding 2 key things: Impact of digital marketing and the importance of client servicing, and as it turns out, Mr. Wahid has been focussed on these 2 factors since their beginning. And this is what has helped them grow to this extent.
Mr. Wahid realised the power of digital marketing early on, way before it became an industry full of buzzwords. He has been focussing on digital mediaand marketing since the very beginning and over the past few years, shifted all his marketing efforts from traditional media to digital media. He started off by outsourcing social media marketing and management to agencies & endedup working with over 4 different agencies because of multiple issues. This helped him understand the “social game” a lot better, and to be open to new things & challenges. At the end, he ended up hiring and setting up his own team of designers and strategists, and bringing the whole marketing in-house. This not only helped him fasten up his speed, but also gave him more freedom to try out experimental ideas more quickly. Marvans Mobile is among very few businesses in India who used Snapchat’s Ad network in the country, probably the only one in Baroda. Mr. Wahid recalls that it has been a rewarding journey and a learning experience. Marvans Mobile’s next steps on a digital transformation are paved with establishing a complete digital store.The online store has been steadily growing every month, with special discounts and offers, giving its customers exciting deals and offers.This eid, both the online and offline stores have exciting discounts and offers which are definitely worth checking out if you are planning to buy an iphone soon. Visit https://store.marvansmobile.com/ to knowmore.This real life success story goes on to show the strengths and advantages of building a brand and community of customers, even in industries like Retailsectors.
