BoboGears addresses gap in motorbike accessory market with int'l quality products, expects 20x-30x growth in next 5 yrs

India is one of the largest markets for motorcycles globally, with a large population of motorcycle owners across various income segments. As disposable income rises, there’s a growing willingness among consumers to spend on customising and accessorising their motorbikes with good quality products. BoboGears has entered into this bike accessory market in India and has been disrupting it with top-notch quality products and customer support. Excerpts are below of a conversation with Gaurav Garg, Founder and CEO of BoboGears.

 

Company Background and Vision

 

Inception of BoboGears and the inspiration behind starting this company:

 

BoboGears was conceptualized in Aug-2018 as a premium D2C brand of new-age tech products in automotive accessories space. The real inspiration behind starting this company was to help Indian consumers with some high-quality world class products and after sales service, which are at par with those available in countries like US, UK and Japan. In first 6 months, we launched many products and realized the real opportunity lies in the bike accessories space, where there were no good quality brands available in affordable price range.

 

Mission and vision of BoboGears and growth in next 5 years:

 

BoboGearsis on a mission to become synonym of bike mounts in India and the vision of the company is to help bikers across the globe with world class products, combined with an unmatched customer care.

In next 5 years, we see the company grow 20x-30x, and to achieve that, we will venture into some new product categories along with going deep in existing categories.

 

Market and Customer Insights

 

Target market:

 

Average selling price for our bike mounts is close to Rs. 2000/- and so our target audience includes mass-premium and super-premium segment of bikers.

We provide them with high-quality world-class products with 1 year hassle free warranty and an option to buy an extended warranty for 2nd year as well. All this is coupled with a very friendly and prompt customer care available through phone and chat.

 

Staying ahead of market trends and customer demands:

 

We have a constant feedback loop through our customer care channel which is always in touch with end users, dealers and distributors across India.This gives us lot of insights on the ground reality and actual customers’ needs.

 

Based on those insights, we keep innovating our product designs and develop some new products as well. One such example was the launch of wireless charger and vibration controllers in bike mounts, which when launched by BOBO was the first ever product to have those features.

 

Challenges and Achievements

 

Key challenges faced by the brand:

 

Majorly, we have only 2 challenges -

a)      Duplicate products– There are many brands who just try to copy our products and sell them at a lesser price. Not just they copy products, but they even copy our tactics and the way we make our marketing collaterals.

 

b)      Pricing–Because of the premium quality of our products, the pricing is little on a higher side and so we are not able to tap the customers falling in the mass market segment. This is a challenge because India is a price sensitive market and people prefer more value for less money. We being a premium brand cannot dilute our brand equity also, but then we have to let go of a certain segment of customers.

 

Milestones and achievements:

 

a)      No. 1 on Amazon – We have dominated Amazon in bike mounts category for last 3-4 years now and have received 20,000+ 5-star reviews

b)      Solid offline presence across India – We have 500+ dealers (direct and indirect) across India in 25+ states and 100+ cities

c)       Lacs of customers – We have served more than 5 lacs customers till date and aiming for the million mark in next 1 year.

 

Future Plans and Expansion

 

Expansion of the product line:

 

Our short-term plan is to focus on and go deep in existing product line only and we want BOBO to become a synonym for BIKE MOUNTS and everyone in India to consider BOBO when they are going for any kind of mounts or accessories for their bike.

 

Our long-term plan is to leverage the brand equity and venture into some new product categories, obviously for the same target audience, so that we can increase our ARPU. We are considering a lot of new product lines, some of which are in market research phase, some in product development and testing phase. Details of these new products will be revealed as and when they are launched.

 

Future of the bike accessory industry in India, and where does BOBOGEARS fit into that vision:

 

As per a report published in Feb 2024 by Verified Market Research, global 2-wheeler accessory market size was valued at USD 10.95 Billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 14.70 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 4.3%. Of this, bike accessory market in India is estimated to be around USD 5 Billion.

 

Market drivers for the bike accessory market in India are:

 

·    Growing 2-wheeler sales automatically grows the accessory sales also

·    Urbanization and traffic congestion led to need for navigation, comfort & safety accessories

·    Growth of e-commerce propelled by faster deliveries

·    Travel and recreation have gone up since COVID and will continue to increase in future

·    Increased disposable income led to acceptance of premium products

 

We see BOBOGEARS as a pioneer in bike accessory industry in next 5 years, catering to not just end users, but also to bike manufacturers and the whole ecosystem.

 

Consumer Engagement and Marketing:

 

Customer engagement to build brands loyalty:

 

We constantly engage with our customers through different channels and mediums. Along with online, we also participate in lot of offline biking events across India, like India Bike Week and Motoverse (Ridermania) in Goa. Recently we participated in World Motorcycle Day 2024 held at Bangalore on 23-Jun-2024, where more than 5000 bikers came and visited our stall. They not only bought our products, but gave us some good reviews and feedback as well. It is always a pleasure to go to such events where you get so much love and trust from your customers.

 

Apart from all this, we have a dealer network of 500+ stores across India, where we often do some activities to engage with our customers.

 

Partnerships and collaborations:

 

In 5 years of our journey so far, we have done many partnerships and collaborations in both online and offline space, which have helped boost our brand.

In online, one of the major partnerships which we have done was in 2019 when we joined hands with Appario to sell our products on Amazon. Later the same was handed over to Cocoblu, which is also doing great for us. Along with that, we have collaborated with tons of influencers and bikers across India to get some featured videos and promotions done through their social media channels. All this led to a significant growth in our sales and brand equity.

 

In offline, we are fortunate to partner with some of the big distributors and offline retail stores of bike accessories in India. They not only help grow our brand, but also give a lot of sales through their stores and network.

 

Also, we have collaborated as OEM for some of the bike manufacturers in India, which boosted our trust and confidence in our products.