Acer has been steadily strengthening its position in India’s PC market, now ranking as the country’s second-largest PC maker. According to the company, its growth has been driven by a deeper understanding of Indian consumers, a broad product portfolio, and a presence across segments ranging from government and education to enterprise and gaming. At the same time, Acer is expanding its physical retail footprint, particularly in smaller cities, while betting on AI PCs, premium laptops, and gaming to drive the next phase of growth. I had the chance to speak with Acer’s Chief Sales Officer in India, Sanjeev Mehtani, about what is behind the company’s momentum, why physical stores still matter, the changing premium laptop market, and how Acer plans to reach more consumers beyond India’s biggest cities. Here are the key excerpts.
Sanjeev – First of all, you require market understanding to become number one, number two, number three, or number four, for that matter. I think Acer has been very close to market understanding. Acer has understood the Indian consumer very well, what they require, and therefore the products we bring in connect with them. The credit goes to our technology and our products, which have enabled us to go to the market where the requirement is and cater to that requirement.
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The second point is that we have actually been available in multiple segments. Whether you take government, PSU, banking, or education, we are very large. We are also present in enterprise, SMB, and consumer, across various segments, whether non-gaming or gaming. This very clearly shows that we have a very diverse portfolio available to us, and that is one of the major reasons why we are leading today.
Acer has never gone in for number two or number three positioning. We have always gone in for sustained growth. We have always gone in for good business, and we always believe that business has to be business-like. That is our philosophy, and that is one achievement for sure.
As of now, however, the growth has to be sustained rather than becoming number one or number three. That is how I will put it across.
Sanjeev – There are various segments available. First of all, to tell you one data point, when we say online has actually grown 30 per cent in the market, it means offline, which means physical stores, are 70 per cent. So physical stores are very important.
Sometimes online becomes 33-35 per cent, and that is okay, but if we have to define it, 70:30 is the ratio as of now. Online is definitely increasing its penetration, so thanks to that, the experience is being enhanced by physical stores.
If I want to see physically what it is, how it works, whether it is meeting my aspiration or not, I can go to the physical store. That look, feel, and experience matter. That is what is provided by a physical store. So the importance of physical stores will never be compromised.
That will always remain. Therefore, Acer is actually working on a model where we are present in physical stores in all forms, because today the market is expanding towards Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. We need to be present there as well.
That is our endeavour as of now, to make our expansion grow across Tier 2 and Tier 3 in various formats. Normal expansion has to happen, and that is where the look, feel, and physical experience matter.
Aman – Can that experience come online?
That cannot come online. Whatever we do, whatever graphics we put in, the confidence of the customer is definitely catered to by physical stores. So it will always remain important for my company.
Sanjeev – AI adoption is actually moving. If you look at the last year and the figures, the market has adopted AI hardware. So if we are talking about AI hardware enablement, then I am saying we will be on the right course. However, my view on this is that what the consumer is going to get from this AI adoption in terms of creativity, performance, and productivity will be very important. What kind of tools will be available is still maturing.
The market is maturing, not just when the tools are actually being introduced. I think this definitely is a growth area for all of us.
AI on the server side: you have seen what kind of enablement is being done. This part will definitely grow. But in my view, more AI tools that are going to enhance productivity for consumers and help them in their day-to-day lives will be required, and that is happening.
So I think it is a long-term story, as is the AI environment.
Sanjeev – India is a growing economy. This is what we talk about with a growing economy: spending increases. Money is available to the consumer to spend and to achieve their aspirations. What people are aspiring for today is better performance and better design. They are aspiring for a better look and feel. They are not only looking for a better look and feel, but they are aspiring to actually have better performance every time. The tools that are coming in also require better productivity and performance.
If all this has to be put together, the premium is going to grow. It is growing today, and it is going to grow more.
Even when we were talking about AI adoption, AI adoption is also actually bringing in premiumness. That part goes hand in hand. Though Acer is trying to bring in AI not as the only feature in a premium laptop, we are also trying to bring it into other price ranges.
However, the premium part will definitely go hand in hand as far as AI is concerned.
Sanjeev – In India, gaming actually comes as a strategy. And not just from recent times, it has been a strategy for Acer for the last 10 years, since we launched the Predator series.
In India, this was one laptop that got sold in three minutes, with around 5,000 units online. That shows what kind of gaming laptop and what kind of performance we brought in, which made the whole change.
In fact, just to give you an idea, we also hosted the Predator Gaming League this January in Delhi. Gaming is something that is owned by us as property, as an asset. That means we are so much into gaming. It is beyond the product. We are also helping gamers come into the community and onto the platform. We are giving them a platform to test the hardware’s power.
So it plays a very pivotal role as far as Acer’s strategy is concerned. In fact, today’s launch also brings in three more Predator models in India.
Nitro, which is for mid-gamers, in fact, today gives us either. I don’t agree with that definition because the kind of performance Nitro gives means a professional can play on it.
When I talk about Predator, it is not only a gaming laptop today. It is for professional creators as well. Gaming is merging with creativity.
These hardware platforms, which are known as gaming today, are also used for creativity. So, wherever you require higher performance, these kinds of laptops are required.
This market is expanding. This will play a big role as far as our strategy is concerned, and therefore we are bringing in four laptops today, which will cater to all the segments.
Sanjeev – If you look at how we are moving differently, I am not taking competition into account when I am talking about our strategy. For us, wherever you are not so strong, there is an opportunity for you. As far as we are concerned, regional LFRs, where we had not engaged earlier, are definitely present in all those Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns because these are actually very important regions.
Our presence through those regional LFRs, which we are engaging now, will definitely increase our Tier 2 and Tier 3 momentum.
We also have one format. We have an exclusive format called Acer Mall. Within that, we have a format specifically designed for Tier 2 and Tier 3, called Zip Store Design. This means it will be a small-footprint store that has everything we need to showcase.
The investment required for this kind of environment is lower than that of a usual Acer Mall. So across Tier 2 and Tier 3, where we feel a partner’s investment capability may not be as much, or perhaps the volume does not support that investment depending on the location, we will use this kind of format.
We have specifically defined and designed this. The third format we are coming up with is a gallery format. The gallery format is only for Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, where we want to engage Tier 3 channel partners. These partners are catered to by regional distributors.
That is the general trade segment, which is actually decreasing today, but that is the market where we think we should engage more.
We have a plan to open something like 100 gallery stores. In a usual Tier 3 environment, you don’t have any demos available. At least, you are not empowering them for demos.
It is more about hardware being available. Here, we are going to make the brand visible through some kind of branding and also enable them to demo the models. It may not be a full suite of products, but it will mainly cater to the local market.
That is why we are engaging with local partners. They will be able to realise what sells there and what the requirements of those consumers are, so that we are able to give them suitable products for their market.
With that, we are looking to open 100 stores, which will be called gallery stores, starting now. We have already started this in Karnataka, and this will spread all over the country.
Sanjeev – We always see our channel partners as our extended family. We have never seen them as being outside Acer. That is why, in the beginning, I said it is not business only for volume. It is business for business.
We want to do business that is business-like, so this statement itself describes that the whole ecosystem has to sustain itself, and the whole ecosystem has to earn from it.
Therefore, if you look at Acer’s partner community, you will find that we have grown with many partners who have been related to us for the last 20 or 25 years. Since we started our consumer business in India, there have been a few partners who are still with us. That is the kind of strong relationship we have built with those partners. I think, if you ask me, this is the key as far as Acer is concerned. We are going with them, they are going with us, and we are able to enable them to grow. If this were not there, this relationship would be more of a business relationship rather than a personal relationship. I think this philosophy itself is very different to start with.
Coming to what we are doing now physically, we are enabling them with affordability in any format they sell. Various schemes are available for them, and productivity incentives are also available.
More importantly, we are investing a lot in manpower. Ultimately, when our manpower is standing in the store, they should be working as consultants rather than salespeople. That is the basic idea.
If they have to be consultants, then they have to be geared up for that. So we are investing heavily in training.
The store promoters, what you call promoters, we call consultants. Those consultants are being trained regularly by us so that they are able to give customers that connectivity and advise customers rather than sell to customers. That is the difference we are trying to bring in. As we train more, we will definitely be closer to our idea of how we want to operate in the field.
Sanjeev – I’ll talk about one opportunity. The kind of technology shift that is happening, I think it is going to open more and more opportunities for us as far as IT is concerned.
Definitely, penetration of IT is still lower in India than in developed economies. Since we are developing faster, I see adoption happening very, very fast.
In my view, we are also actually touching consumers with consumer electronics. As I said, this is going to be another company under an umbrella. It is not Acer only, but that is known as consumer electronics.
TVs should also be used, and we have other appliances as well, which we are entering.
So we will be reaching more consumers with that. As touchpoints increase, visibility increases. If visibility increases and it is backed by good service, definitely the brand is going to grow.
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That is the strategy which we have today: more touchpoints through IT, more touchpoints through consumer electronics, more touchpoints through luggage and fashion, and more touchpoints through AVDOS, which is into servers and storage as a group.
I think our brand width will definitely increase, and acceptance will increase. That is what is going to give us growth in the remote market as well.