India's First 24x7 Eletronic Outlet Opens in Nehru Place Metro Station

House of Technology (HOT) is India's first electronics outlet that plans to remain open 24x7 and features products from as many as 100 IT brands including Samsung, Acer, Sony, and Dell. The initiative was taken by Vipul Jain, who set up Unique Infoways back in 1994 as a channel partner for IBM.

Sprawled across 40,000 sqft area, HOT is designed to usher in new benchmark in the way consumers experience and purchase IT and electronics products, says Vipul. We're going to showcase the most comprehensive array of prodcuts --laptops, desktops, smartphones & tablets, cameras, all under one roof, for consumers to have wider choice.

The store plans to add solutions for small and mid sized businesses to its  product lineup soon while surveillance cameras are already on its inventory.

They wow the concept

HOT anticipates a footfall of 12,000 daily and a sale of approximately 20 cr per month. The marketplace will also host various IT  exhibitions, new product launches besides being a hotspot for metro goers and consumers alike. Unique Infoway also plans to scale this business up by replicating the model in three other metro stations.

HOT with its impressive product line is certainly a trend setter, I am sure this initiative will be widely welcomed by all consumers, says Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications and IT, Law and Justice (Sibal could not make it to the event). This is the first mall of its kind in any metro station and is supported jointly by DMRC and TDI, says Mangu Singh, MD, DMRC.

Also present in the press conference were Debjani Ghosh, MD -Sales & Marketing South Asia, Intel; Rajesh Agarwal, chairman, Micromax; Manish Sharma, MD, Panasonic; Kinu Kinu Dasan, GM Marketing, Sony India; sanjeev Krishan, chairman, Iris Computers, and partners.

"Product prices will by and large be the same but our USP is the great experience zone with widest range of products available for everyone to try", says Vipul upon asking about the prices of products being showcased.

Is HOT a really hot idea?

The gathering of hundreds of attendes including journalists sounded more of bullish than skeptics. The Q&A session saw pouring in of more questions on HOWS than WHYS. While it's too early to predict on what the future hold for this 24x7 IT outlets in metro stations, the idea seem GREAT, given that consumers will get to see all gadgets in one place round the clock. However, I don't think 'late night shopping'is yet a trend in India.