Making The Right Noise

Founded by Gaurav Khatri in 2014, Noise is primarily a connected, lifestyle, ecosystem brand where the company strives to develop a high-end technological product and trendy gadgets. Noise started out selling smartphone cases but soon its promoters saw the smartphone revolution and realised that with a phone at the centre of most people’s lives, smartphone accessories would be the next big thing in India. And they were so right in their assessment.

Today, Noise has diversified into smart wearables and wireless headphones. Noise was one of the first brands in India to offer truly wireless earbuds; the Noise SHOTS, the company claims.

How did it all start? Khatri, CEO, Noise recalls, “In my early twenties, I was struggling to find a personalised version of headphones from an Indian brand. It was not easily accessible to a young consumer like me. We decided to look into the industry and see whether this is a good business opportunity or not. After speaking to others around me, we decided to get into this line and understand more about this product.”

How would you introduce Noise today? “We are into the ‘hearable’ and the ‘wearable’ product categories,” says Khatri.

Cluttered Category: Today, Noise has a spectrum of products, including smart watches, and headphones for the young Indian consumer. They have understood the demand of a domestic user in specific, as against global brands that are doing it for the global market in general. While the category is cluttered with brands, it is not cluttered with the right set of brands who cater to the young audience who are catering to a young audience.  

Noise has been listed as bestselling brand on Amazon and Flipkart for four years in a row and in 2019, Noise was the biggest Indian seller of wireless earphones in the country, says Khatri. “We were also the only Indian brand amongst the top 5 brands selling wireless earphones in India,” he adds.

How did lockdown impact your business? “Fortunately or unfortunately, the last one year has been difficult for all the businesses that have been there, but for us we are in a D2C e-commerce platform. We already have platform-ready bidders due to which we were ready to embed and change ourselves in a world directed towards e-commerce,” Khatri says.

Growing Fast: Noise is growing at a fast pace. Its team size has also grown by 200 per cent. With internet taking the world by storm, the consumer has a plethora of choice with respect to technology and products available in the country. This is quite contrary to the limited options we had from nearby shops not too long back. “This learning and understanding of the consumer translate into increasing the business or the category itself,” says Khatri.

With work from home still a reality, most of us are spending increasing time in front of the screen and consuming more content than ever. Coupled with the rise of internet, this has given a boost to the business Noise is doing at present, with the goal of penetrating the Indian market way higher than it is now. All the best!