Xiaomi is planning to ramp up their offline sales in India by the end of this year. This information comes from Manu Kumar Jain, Head of Xiaomi India. He also said that Xiaomi focused on online sales until now, but that is about to change, as they will put great focus on both online and offline distribution of their products. The company is currently selling around 10% of their smartphones through offline channels, and they’re aiming to increase that to 20-25% by the end of 2017.
Mr. Jain said that Xiaomi has a solid plan to achieve this, and that they have been figuring out their strategy for quite some time now. “In five or six cities, we are ramping up and having extensive offline distribution,” said Manu Kumar Jain, while he also listed those cities: Chandigarh, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai. Mr. Jain also said that Xiaomi plans to open their own branded outlets, at some point at least, he did not share any specific time frame, but he did mention that it won’t happen that soon. For those of you who don’t know, Xiaomi had actually crossed the $1 billion revenue mark in India in 2016, and is selling their smartphones through 8,500 multi-brand outlets in the country. “We cut down two-three layers of distribution network and by that we save money and then this money is passed on to consumers and that is why our phones are affordable,” added Manu Kumar Jain.
Head of Xiaomi India also commented the recent launch of the Redmi Note 4 in the country, while he also praised the smartphone, and shared Xiaomi’s expectations. The company managed to sell 3.6 million Redmi Note 3 units in the country last year, and the Redmi Note 4 is better in every way, which is why the company is hoping to double its sales compared to the Redmi Note 3. There you have it, Xiaomi might not have strived as far as smartphone sales go, globally speaking, but they certainly did great in India last year. Well, Xiaomi is hoping to build upon that success, and do much better in 2017, while offline sales will be something they’ll focus on.