Xiaomi made a big bang entry in India some years ago through its strong online business model and achieved tremendous response by selling record breaking mobile phones in India. And now they are betting big on India offline market so they are planning for boosting offline sales in India, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, which opened its 1,000th “Mi Store” in India recently is all set to achieve the new milestone of having 10,000 retail stores by the end of 2019, a senior official said in a press release.
Xiaomi India is claiming that it had generated massive employment for over 2,000 people with the opening of 1,000 Mi Stores, which are spread across 19 states in India.
“We have been the No. 1 smartphone brand in India for nine consecutive quarters and our market share in online smartphone business in the country is over 50 per cent.
“The scope of growth in online market share is now limited. Therefore, we are focusing on expanding our offline presence in a big way,” Xiaomi India Managing Director Manu Kumar Jain told in an interview.
According to Mr Jain, Xiaomi’s current market share in the offline smartphone business in India is around 20 per cent.
“By the end of this year, we are hoping to have 50 per cent of our smartphone sales in the country from offline channels,” he added.
Xiaomi had basically been an online brand since its launch and just started two years ago for its offline sales in India.
The company announced the opening of 500 Mi Stores in the country in November,2018 saying that it was planning to open another 5,000 such retail stores in the interiors and rural areas of India by end of 2019.
“Mi Stores” are similar to the bigger “Mi Home” stores currently operational in the metros and other big cities.
In addition to the 1,000th Mi Store launch, Xiaomi India also announced the launch of Mi Studios, the latest addition to its existing three retail channels.
Located currently in Bengalure and Mumbai, with an average size of 400-600 sq.ft, the new Mi Studios are an enhanced version of Mi Homes, Xiaomi said, adding that it was working towards opening 200 Mi Studios by the end 2019.
“We are learning from other other brands such as Samsung and Vivo in expanding our offline presence in the country,” Jain added.
If you club all the four retail channels, Xiaomi currently has a total of about 6,000 retail stores in India.