Xiaomi plans to make some systemic changes in its smartphone business to prioritize offline sales through retail outlets in India. The president of Xiaomi India said that the main objective behind the change in strategy is to revive smartphone sales and take on their biggest competitor Samsung at the moment.
Xiaomi is taking new strategies to increase offline sales
India has seen a huge growth in e-commerce sales through platforms like Amazon and Flipkart in the last few years. As a result, Xiaomi and other smartphone brands have been able to expand their business in India, which has become one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world. Right now, a total of 600 million or 600 million people use smartphones in this country and the number is increasing But despite online growth, offline retail outlets still remain the dominant channel for smartphone sales in the country.
Currently, Xiaomi products already have a noticeable presence in 18,000 offline stores across India. And now, the company plans to further expand its offline footprint. Xiaomi’s India head, Muralikrishnan B. Acknowledging their company’s relatively weak position in the offline segment, competing companies have captured a large share of the market by executing their strategies well.
Notably, Counterpoint Research’s report has revealed that Xiaomi is now lagging behind Samsung in terms of market share in India. Samsung currently holds a slightly higher 20% market share compared to Xiaomi’s 16% market share. To increase offline presence, Xiaomi plans to hire more store promoters in its stores, who can better showcase Xiaomi phones to customers within the retail outlet and highlight the benefits. The company aims to triple the number of promoters to 12,000 by the end of next year compared to the beginning of this year.
