Xiaomi has reiterated its goal of increasing the company’s mobile phone sales through various offline channels in India by expanding its footprint in the country, adding more dedicated stores and other retail outlets across various cities in the next few days. According to Raghu Reddy, Xiaomi’s head for online sales in India, the Chinese smartphone maker’s online sales of mobile devices account for nearly 80 percent of its business and now it aims to expand into the offline market for future growth.
The Beijing-based consumer electronics company has been devoting its resources solely to online sales since 2010 when the company was founded, though it has recently kicked off offline operations as well by opening physical stores initially at its home country. In recent times, the Chinese original equipment manufacturer has repeatedly shown interest in boosting its offline sales in India, with Xiaomi India Head Manu Kumar Jain having revealed earlier this year that the company intended to put great focus on both online and offline distribution of its mobile device offerings with the goal of increasing its offline channels to 25 percent by the end of the year. The company also ramped up its offline distribution channels initially in Chandigarh, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai earlier this year.
Jain also previously said that Xiaomi aimed to reach more than $2 billion in revenue from its Indian business this year, relying tremendously on the local growth of its smartphones and marketing strategies in the country. Jain, earlier this year, described Xiaomi’s strategy in India as focused on the masses, reflecting on the opening of the company’s first brick-and-mortar store in the Far Eastern country called the Mi Home. It is worth pointing out that the target revenue is twice as large as Xiaomi’s revenue last year after the company reached the $1 billion milestone in India, driven in part by its expansion into the offline market. Xiaomi also managed to achieve a 328 percent growth in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2016, courtesy of strong sales recorded by its mobile device offerings including the Redmi 4, Redmi Note 4, and Redmi 4A, according to Jain. It remains to be seen how offline distribution could help boost the company’s sales in the country over the coming months.