Indian stores to sell Xiaomi phones
Print Edition
CHINESE smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc has decided to sell devices through a leading electronics retail chain in India, part of its effort to move away from online-only sales and boost growth in the world’s third-largest smartphone market.
Xiaomi launched its India operations with online marketplace Flipkart.com in July, selling its phones through flash sales where availability is limited to short timeframes.
The company this year decided to sell its Redmi Note 4G handsets through shops of carrier Bharti Airtel Ltd, but that would still need an online registration.
Yesterday, Xiaomi said it would sell its phones through The Mobile Store retail chain, as well as expand its online retail presence by adding online retailers Snapdeal and the Indian unit of Amazon.com. “Some people said we were generating artificial demand. We are trying to increase our supply, to bring more goods into India and to supply them in a free manner to all our partners,” said Xiaomi’s India head, Manu Jain.
Of the 22 million smartphones shipped to distributors in India in the fourth quarter, Samsung contributed 27.4 percent while Xiaomi stood sixth at 4.1 percent, according to Neil Shah, director at Counterpoint Technology Market Research. “India is their growth market now. They have to go offline to scale in India,” Shah said, adding that the retail expansion was likely to boost Xiaomi’s ranking.
With the new partnership, Xiaomi handsets will be available in stores in India.
“By tomorrow Mi phones are to be available in about 30 to 35 stores. Customers at some point need to touch and feel and they need to buy phones when they need to buy them,” said Himanshu Chakrawarti, chief executive of The Mobile Store.
Jain said the Chinese company was also planning to hire aggressively in India.
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