This unique market carries its own scent of a confluence of white and grey market places all within its own business-oriented ecosystem.When it comes to smartphone sales, Delhi’s GhafferMarket has its own very unique place. It is also popular by the name of Grey Market and is about 1 km from KarolBagh Metro station located in New Delhi. It has been named after the famous Indian freedom fighter Khān Abdul GhaffārKhān (1890–1988).
This market was launched during the year 1952 to sell electrical and electronic goods, but today it has emerged mainly as market for smartphones, tablets and their accessories. In this market, one can get china-made goods without any difficulty. Electronic goods sold here comprise of air-conditioners, cameras, televisions, mobiles, tablets, etc as well as all accessories.
How To Reach Ghaffar Market
Gaffer Market is situated at a distance of 20–22 km from the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), and is serviced by the Karol Bagh metro station, located on the Blue Line of the Delhi Metro. Mobility team recently met some of the top traders in the market and hadshort 1:1 interactions with them, which are covered in the following passage.
Total Traders, led by Ishpreet Singh, provides compatible batteries and handfree for various top brands. Their brands 50 Gold, XP Xtra, Embo, etc are compatible with premium smartphone brands like Samsung, Karboo, Nokia, Lava, Micromax, LG, Sony, etc. Ishpreet Singh states, “We started in 2008 with our main product smartphone battery and then addedhandsfree. We have presence in GhaffarMarket and also all over India. Reasonable prices and good quality are our main selling points. Competition is a challenge, but we maintain good relations with our customers and they trust us and come back to us again and again. Right now we get all the products from China, but our aim is to start our own manufacturing plant in India.”
The narrow lanes in this market always remain crowded and at times it becomes difficult for the people to walk comfortably. Although the sewage organization of the MCD is located over the main highway, the market remains dirty at all times. If you want to visit this place, the best days with thin crowds will be Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and the market remains closed on Monday. Other days are usually crowded. Sixteen cameras were mounted around two years before at significant places for covering the common public movement.
Mobiles and Accessories Galore in a Small Area
In GhaffarMarket, in an area of roughly 2 sq km,you find 1000s of shops where different types of imported mobile phones and accessories are sold and repaired. Indeed, the iPhone that was launched in Europe and declared as the Discovery in that particular year, was obtainable here several months before its initiation, as per reports.
Beware that in most cases, sellers may not offer any warrantees or guarantees. But there are honest players who do give warranty and mention it in clear terms. For that you should make sure before you buy that you are buying from a standard player. If you are making high value purchases, it is always better to go there with experienced persons who are familiar with the market and its nuances.
Metro Mobile Accessories is a company that deals in all kinds of mobile accessories in the brand name MTR. The company also deals in Chinese mobiles. RohitLakhina, Metro Mobile Accessories, Ghaffar Market,asserts, “We started in 2006 and have presence all across India. Good quality and competitive prices are the selling points of our MTR brand.”
Since 1000s of crores of rupees business takes place in Ghaffar Market, it has become an attractive destination for vendors who want to sell goods and for distributors and dealers who want to sell their products. Even though unbranded Chinese goods form a greater share of business here, big brands do not want to lose the opportunities presented by this market. Particularly, the present gen young entrepreneurs are doing aggressive business here.
A Confluence of White and Grey Market
As there are a lot of mobile traders in this market, there are many who are official partners for many global brands, while there are others who deal in old and even repaired, grey handsets. This market has a true confluence of white and grey products in the mobile space.
VikasVyas, Hello G, Ghaffar Market, “Headquartered in Mumbai, we are specialized in providing mobile accessories includinghandsfree, headsets, card readers, mobile chargers, bluetooth, etc of several models. Our company is ISO 9001-2008 certified. Best quality and reasonable prices are our selling points. Our prices are 10% higher than the market prices, but we provide better quality compared to general market products. At present, we do not have any big problems or challenges.”
Also many shopkeepers in this market deal in a variety of fake goods and claim that the products are quite good as compared to the original or branded products, but in fact they are often of poor quality dupes. So you should be careful about such sellers. The domestic tourists visit this market in large numbers and are quite familiar with the market.
AGS (April Global Solution P Ltd), lead by J P Agrawal, provides all kinds of smartphone batteries. They have presence in UP, Punjab, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and Delhi. Agrawal comments, “Our batteries are of medium quality and of medium price. We cater to the mass markets. We plan to expand further in spite of tough competition.”
In GhaffarMarket, you can get goods at affordable prices in comparison to other areas in Delhi and you can also get good quality goods if you know how to differentiate between fake and genuine.
Sarfaraz from A R Accessories, comments, “We provide good quality products at market prices. Our products go all over India.”
Towering Gaffar Market
Over the past many years of its existence, the Ghaffar Market has grown a lot compared to what it was 2 or 3 years back. Now you can find several verticals selling different products—some specializing only batteries, some in smart phones, some in accessories, some in all kinds and so on.
Ghaffar Market is one of the well-known markets not only in India, but also in China and other places. Today you find a lot of branded goods and branded showrooms besides unbranded Chinese goods and grey products. Because of the billions of rupees of business that takes place in this market, it has become a coveted and indispensable destination for vendors, distributors and other partners. We hope in the near future, Ghaffar Market will shed its image as a grey market and evolve into a market with standards.
