The China-based smartphone maker is on an aggressive expansion phase in the offline channel in the country
Credit – Mi Twitter handleAfter taking the online smartphone selling channel by storm in the country, Xiaomi is now continuously expanding at a fast rate in the offline sales channel in India. Manu Kumar Jain, MD, Xiaomi India, in a tweet mentioned that the company has added 20 new distributors in its offline network in the country.
Jain’s official tweet read, “Our offline business has been growing at a super sonic speed. Excited to welcome 20 new distributors to Xiaomi India family!”
Xiaomi, as per a report by IDC, had captured 28.9 per cent smartphone market share in 2018. The company had registered 58.6 per cent growth in India in the same year.
Jain’s tweet continued, “Together we can achieve so much! If all of us work hard towards one common goal, we can do wonders. Let’s not think about sales or market share. Let’s worry about giving the best products + best experience to Mi Fans. If we do that well, success (win across all key cities in the offline market) will come automatically!”
Reasons Xiaomi grew in 2019
The IDC report mentions that Xiaomi’s growth in India was fueled by its affordable Redmi series smartphones. It is to be noted here that Redmi Note 6 and Redmi Note 6 Pro were among the best-selling smartphones in 2018. Redmi 5A and Redmi Note 5/Pro series, as per IDC, had emerged as the fastest selling devices of 2018 across brands driving 10 million shipments each in the entire year.
IDC report read, “Xiaomi continued to dominate, growing YoY by 28.6 per cent in 2018 Q4 on back of its affordable Redmi series devices aided by high decibel marketing campaigns and offline expansion with its Mi preferred partner program and opening of rural stores.”
Xiaomi also grew exponentially in the online sales channel segment. It was successfully able to capture 47.2 per cent share in the online sales segment in India. IDC said that Xiaomi was also able to climb to the second slot in the offline channel by surpassing Vivo in 2018 Q4.
Plans for 2019
The China-based company has already signed Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh as its brand ambassador in India. The announcement was made last month. Ranveer, who has a positive image among the masses, was also seen promoting Redmi Note 7 Series in TV commercials as well as on social media handles. Xiaomi’s recent filings with Registrar of Companies, also show that the company has infused Rs 3500 crore in its India business in 2019.
Infact, this is the first time that Xiaomi has signed a superstar for advertising its products in India. Until now, the company was completely dependent on social media marketing and communities for driving brand value for its smartphones and other products in India.
Interestingly, Xiaomi is slowly bringing in a lot of other products in the consumer electronics vertical in India as well. It apart from smartphones, has already launched security cameras, TVs, soundbars and wireless headphones here. It is also believed that Xiaomi is planning to launch its gaming smartphone brand Black Shark in the country.
Redmi Go, one of the most economical smartphones from the stables of Xiaomi, is also slated to be launched in India on 19 March 2019. By the likes of social media campaigns that the company is executing, it looks like as if it is going to target the rural markets in India. Meenakshi, Forecast Analyst at Forrester India, had earlier told EFY Group that users in rural India do not generally upgrade to smartphones because of the expensive price factor. It is to be noted here that Xiaomi is planning to launch Redmi Go in the sub-Rs 5000 smartphone category in India.
Himanshu Jain, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India, told EFY Group, “Xiaomi has been focusing on offline expansion since last year and by launching its cheapest phone it will definitely create some noise in the market. As of now none of the brands has strong foothold in the less than 5k price band, if Xiaomi is able to launch at less than 5k band then it will be great move.”
