- Realme is also planning to bring more IoT enabled consumer electronics in India
- Xiaomi has around 2500 exclusive brand retail showrooms in India
- These last eight months have seen more and more brands turning their focus towards the offline channel
Realme CEO Madhav Sheth has recently informed a leading media daily that the company is planning to introduce an offline-specific smartphone series in India. The company might introduce these during the first quarter of 2019.
Interestingly, Realme, as per a recent Counterpoint Research, remained the fastest-growing brand for the second time. It also climbed up the ladder in global rankings since its last appearance. The company jumped to the seventh spot during Q3 2019.
The company performed handsomely in India as well. Another Counterpoint Research Report pointed out that Realme recorded its highest ever shipments and is the fastest growing brand registering a 6X growth as compared to last year when it entered the Indian market. Towards the end of Q3 2019, in September, Realme raced to the spot of third largest brand with strong sell-in into the channels ahead of the festive season. Realme C2, Realme 3i and Realme 5 series were the best-selling devices for the brand in Q3 2019.
Online to offline strategy
China-based Realme was present in more than 35 cities across more than 3000 stores in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Surat, Ludhiana, Chandigarh and more cities by April 2019. The company had then pointed out that it was in the process of expanding its offline reach here.
It is to be noted here that Realme is a smartphone brand owned by BBK. China-based BBK also operates OnePlus, Vivo, Oppo, Iqoo and Reno smartphone brands.
Offline sounds good but
While Realme’s plans of expanding in the offline channel sound good for the brand, it is also worth mentioning here that Xiaomi, has already made strides in terms of offline expansion in India. A recent report by Channelplay had said that Xiaomi, in terms of single brand retail showrooms, was bigger than the industry heavyweight Samsung.
Xiaomi is also a competitor in the smartphone arena in India. The brand had said that it was able to sell more than 8.5 million smartphones during the Diwali period in India. Realme, on the other hand, was able to sell around 5.2 million units. However, unlike five year old Xiaomi, Realme is only a year old smartphone brand.
Realme has recently announced the launch of Realme X2 Pro smartphones in India. The company is retailing these at starting prices of Rs 29,999 here. As a matter of fact, Realme’s new launch, is its first take on the above Rs 30,000 smartphones market.
