Billing for your mobile shop in Tamil Nadu
The phone, the cover and the glass on one bill that you can still find when the warranty claim comes.
Counter tools for phones, chargers and repair charges
Daily reports
Handsets and small accessories on separate lines for each evening, so the night's total shows what the phones earned and what the covers earned.
Low stock warnings
The 20-watt charger and the 33-watt charger as two lines, so the cheaper one running out by the month's end is seen before a customer asks for it.
Offers for regular customers
A better rate on covers and glasses for the customer whose traded-in phone is on his page with you.
Your own online shop
A page of your phones with colour and model written as your bill writes them, so a customer in the lane finds yours among the same model on every counter.
Many shops, one owner
The trade-in phone as a stock line of its own, moving from the sales counter at the front to the repair counter at the back and again to the front.
What a mobile counter gains between the customer's first look and his warranty visit
The repair counter's takings kept apart from the sales counter
The repair bench at the back and the sales counter at the front keep their own totals under one account. At night you see which earned more that day, and that tells you where the owner's next hour is better spent: at the bench with the screwdriver, or at the glass talking to buyers.
A trade-in phone, billed and stocked as an item of its own
A customer gives his old phone in part exchange. You add it to stock as an item with its own name and rate, sell it later like any other, and the amount you allowed for it comes off the new phone's rate on that bill, not on a note on the side.
The order that counts what is still on the way
Lots from far away arrive weeks apart. The low list shows what ran out, and the orders show what is still coming. The evening's order goes only for the gap, so you do not order twice.
Factory floors and mill towns where Tamil Nadu's phone shops find their customers
A phone shop sells to everyone around it. Three Tamil Nadu districts and the work of their people.
- Vaniyambadi and Ambur, in the old Vellore district, make finished leather, shoes and garments for export, and the workers in those units are your recharge and repair customers.
- Coimbatore has many textile mills and more than 700 wet grinder makers, so a phone shop there serves shift workers who come in at the change of the shift.
- Salem grows the Malgoa mango and a great deal of tapioca, and the farmers there come to the phone shop for a handset and a recharge between market days.
A lane that quotes the same model on every counter, a cover that earns more and a bill that someone loses
A lane where every shop quotes the same model
In a phone lane the customer walks from counter to counter with one model in his mind. The handset is the same on every shelf and the price is only a little different, so your margin is thin and the cover, the glass and the charger you add at the counter decide whether the sale was worth making.
Stock that comes in lots from far away
Phones and parts come in lots from wholesalers in other cities, weeks apart and at different prices. By the time the second lot arrives you have sold some of the first, and the colours and models on your shelf are not the ones you thought you had ordered.
The paper bill that is lost before the warranty visit
A customer comes back three weeks after the sale with a fault and no bill. In a lane where every shop sells the same model at nearly the same rate, he might have bought it next door. The bill with the colour and model written in is what proves it was yours, and what brings him back to you.
Questions Tamil Nadu mobile shop owners ask about phones, accessories and warranty
A customer buys a phone and wants two bills, one for himself and one for his office. Can I make two?
Yes. Make the first bill, then a second bill under the same name for the items the office pays for.
A phone is sold with its box charger and a free cover. How do the free pieces come off my count?
Put the charger and the cover on the bill as lines at no charge. The phone, the charger and the cover each come off their own count, so the accessory shelf is not found short at the week's end.
The lot from far away came with models and colours I did not order. How do I enter it?
Enter what is in the carton, model by model and colour by colour, as stock. The order you sent, held beside it, shows what is extra and what is missing.
Ritchie Street's lots and Tirunelveli's visitors
Ritchie Street shopkeepers said in 2023 that they buy electronics from Mumbai, Delhi and Punjab, and one put the street at about 2,000 registered shops. A shop that buys from three far cities lives with lots that arrive late, so what is on order is as much a part of its stock as what is on the shelf.
Tirunelveli is known for its halwa, which visitors buy to take home, and is a venue for textile shopping. A phone shop in a town that draws visitors sells to people who are passing through as well as to locals, and a bill on WhatsApp reaches a customer who has already gone home.