17 January 2023, Mumbai
At the outset the outlook for wearables in India remains strong in the current year with users from Tier II and III cities becoming attracted to it. In Q1 FY’22 India’s wearable shipments grew 20.1 percent Y-o-Y to 13.9 million units and rest of the quarters growth too is expected to remain healthy due to continuing push from brands as a catalyst and scenario looks very bright on the back of demand tailwind.
Pull and push
The performance-linked incentive scheme is encouraging key players in the sector to venture into local manufacturing and launch ‘Made in India’ products, further lowering their selling price, adds Joshi.
Consumers are being encouraged to spend more on wearables through aggressive discounts, new features, and a strong push from brands and channel partners, says Anisha Dumbre, Senior Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC India.
What is sellinThe growth was driven by increasing acceptance of earwear devices and upgrades to watches from wrist bands, both recording their highest annual shipments in 2022.
Prognosis
In 2023, the Indian wearable market is expected to migrate to more sophisticated devices with enhanced audio experience being the central theme for all vendors, say most of the trade observers as the high cost associated with wearable watches is not much of a challenge anymore.
But unqualified products been dumped in India is one concern flag raised by trade watchers & experts as this is both capex and working capital investment intensive and illegal imports are not going to take us any where.
Surprise element
The usage of digital technology, no prediction could have worked for long in the past in terms of shifting the business environment throughout the supply chain for an industry as fragmented as fashion where product cycles have also decreased dramatically, from months to days and where unit economics is pretty critical given 'Competitive Landscape'.
The truth is that no customer will pay more for factory-sourced items tomorrow than they did yesterday so the USP of success is going to be smart features and cutting edge product simple as this.
Use cases of smart wearables
Rather than incorporating electronic gadgets into accessories such as watches or spectacles, the next step is to incorporate them into the clothing itself. As a result, the user will not need to carry an additional accessory and will be able to wear smart device features right on their clothing.
Designers and manufacturers have been attempting to affix these gadgets to the cloth directly and already early movers are making best out of it.
Bits of Good
And India needs to replicate China like spirit and eco-system to make a big success out of this emerging category for a country of youthful demographics. We have climbed up in ease of doing business and, is helping global & Indian investors as these small things help maths adding up to sew a success story.
Now India has a strong manufacturing heritage to prove the point and the innovation led R&D in some of the companies is driving the future traction to create an intrigue around these lifestyle products and continued evolution of emerging technologies is the vanguard of this category.
There is a case for wearable devices help solve issues plaguing the fitness conscious Indians. Product! Product! Product; The trend we are witnessing today is that it is not really naive to argue anymore that remote monitoring powered by wearables can be of great help to effectively & meaningfully monitor health parameters and, relay these vital stats to doctors/physicians Or healthcare providers over the cloud thus timely get expert advice & prescription as in preventive cure and treatment and, this is the change we are seeing today.
