Xiaomi Plans To Increase Sales On Retail Outlets In India Amid Rivalry With Samsung

Xiaomi, a smartphone maker based in China, is looking to increase its sales in India. Xiaomi wants to increase the sales made on India’s retail outlets, in a significant shift from the previous focus on e-commerce platforms.

Xiaomi plans to increase sales in India

Xiaomi has been looking to grow its sales in retail outlets in India in an effort to compete against South Korean smartphone maker Samsung. Xiaomi has been heavily reliant on e-commerce sales in India through Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart, with sales on these platforms increasing significantly in recent years.

The focus on retail outlets will allow Xiaomi and other smartphone makers to expand in one of the fastest-growing markets globally. India has around 600 million smartphone users, which is a major market for the smartphone maker.

44% of smartphone sales in India are being done through e-commerce platforms. However, brick-and-mortar stores are still dominating the market, with Xiaomi expecting sales through these platforms to increase significantly.

Xiaomi is seeking more growth in the offline space

The head of Xiaomi India, Muralikrishnan B., noted that the company’s market position in the offline space was notably lower than what was being seen in online spaces. The executive added that its competitors across the offline space had been tapping this market well, and they had a significantly large market share.

Around 34% of the Xiaomi unit sales in India have so far been attributed to retail stores. The rest of the sales have been done through websites, which have remained to be a dominant sales generator. On the other hand, its rival Samsung has obtained 57% of sales from stores.

Xiaomi is also planning to grow the store network past the current 18,000 as it pursues more partnerships with phone vendors to provide other products like security cameras and Xiaomi TVs. Muralikrishnan also said that Xiaomi had located some partner stores for branding on shops that also displayed rival brands.

The pursuit of this smartphone maker to expand to the Indian market through retail outlets comes months after the company came behind Samsung. The South Korean smartphone maker boasts a 20% market share in India. Xiaomi’s market share in India stands at 16%.

Analysts believe that the move would attract customers spending more as they usually prefer having a look and feel of a premium product. Xiaomi is also planning to increase the number of employees working as store promoters to reach 12,000 by the end of 2024.

However, Xiaomi is facing significant challenges in its plans to expand operations in India. The smartphone maker is facing a $673 million freeze on bank assets imposed by a federal agency since last year. According to this agency, Xiaomi made illegal remittances o foreign firms in the form of royalties. Xiaomi has since denied these charges. According to Muralikrishnan, the company was confident that its position on the matter would be heard and validated.