Collection: Choice Of Vendor

There are two types of products that are available in the market. One is the products sold by big companies sold under their brand name, most such brands have OEM factories that manufacture the product for them. Other are the products that are assembled by not so big companies but can be customised as per your requirement.

Purchasing only on the basis of the trust of the brand name is not advisable in any industry and it is more so not advisable in the lighting industry. The lighting industry as mentioned earlier has so much of technical aspects and total non-standardisation with many of its componentsas a whole. Thus Customer awareness of the product is critical. Following are the factors that you need to keep in mind before choosing the right vendor for you or which brand of product to choose.

1.  Origin of products

This is a very important criterion and one should prefer products made in India. The components can be

manufactured anywhere in the world but if the final product is also assembled out of India it will not be that reliable. Reason being, if the company is getting products manufactured abroad they have limited control over the quality of the product. Indian products are more suited to domestic conditions. A company may have different products with different origins, thus check for each product.

2.  Guarantee terms, and service after guarantee

Check the guarantee year term and more importantly check for market feedback on how much company is true to their commitments. Gurantee term means  the number of years of guarantee the company is giving on the products. Generally, guarantee term ranges from 1 to 5 years on the products. But the trickier part is to check how much the company is true to their after-sales commitments. Moreover, only guarantee period is not crucial, but capability and willingness to provide the maintenance services on the product after the guarantee is also important. That is to assume you have purchased a good quality product with a life of over 10 years, then you need to maintain your lighting setup after the guarantee period. Most big brands will not provide you with this maintenance service. A practical scenario is that the designs of the products change frequently in the industry and most companies work on use and throw model to get more sales with replacements. But this is a very rough deal for customers. If let say 10 per cent of the lights in a set up get faulty after guarantee and the same design not available with the company and they are not providing any

repair services. In this case the customer is stuck or then the whole setup has to be replaced. So, this a huge factor to be considered before purchasing the lights.

3.  The financial strength of the company

Lighting business had gone through a lot of challenges lately. The industry shifted to LED, the LED technology is so fast developing, that it is a challenge in itself. There have been many irregularities in the market where companies misquoted in some government (EESL) tenders. To win the tenders they quoted too aggressively, some provided material in losses, some provided substandard product which later failed in the market that resulted in huge amount of money being stuck in payments. Moreover, price wars between these players led to huge losses due to which many big companies in the lighting industry are unstable and few also went insolvent. Thus, if you by mistake purchase product from an unstable company and later the company faces financial troubles, you are not going to get any service on your product. Thus, please check the financial strength of the company before investing your money with them.

4.  Customer portfolio

The industry is so vast and technically diverse, it is mostly common that companies have expertise in a particular type or application of lights. If your application is specialised, then check the customer portfolio of the company to verify that you have chosen the right company for your requirement.

5.  Goodwill of the company

This is a major factor not to be confused with the popularity of the brand. Today’s world is of marketing and brand popularity can be built in a short span with huge marketing budgets. While goodwill is based on years of customer experience and market feedback. Thus, check from the reviews and experiences of the recent customer experiences, of the company or a brand. The LED light industry has now become a consumer services industry like other consumer electronics and appliances industry. Hence, this is a major factor you should consider. Select a company that has a minimum of 10 years of experience in the industry and out of them who’s market feedback for their after sales service is excellent.