One-stop shops claim bigger durable pie in metros

With retail chains mushrooming all over the country, durable majors are increasingly betting on them to push sales. With chains like Reliance Digital, Croma, Next and e-zone drawing up big expansion plans for the domestic market, standalone dealers are now a worried lot.

"We have already started to see lower footfalls. People prefer to go to malls and shop. We have lost some of our regular customers. It will be difficult to sustain ourselves in the coming years," said Rahul Das, owner of Delhi-based Das Electronics.

Till recently, the Indian consumer electronics market, currently estimated at around Rs 25,000 crore per annum, was totally in the hands of standalone dealers like Das. With the entry of organised retail chain, this is set to change. Already, these chains have recorded sales of about Rs 2,000 crore