Xiaomi to focus on retail stores in India as it falls behind Samsung in sales

Xiaomi already has a presence in 18,000 offline stores in India and it is set to boost its offline footprint further. After years of focusing on e-commerce sales, Xiaomi's India head, Muralikrishnan B. says that the company aims to revive its smartphone sales that have now fallen behind its competitor Samsung in India, reported Reuters.  

In an interview, Muralikrishnan stated, “Our market position in offline is substantially lower than what it is online. Offline is where you have other competitors who have been executing fairly well and have a larger market share.” Notably, there are 600 million smartphone users in India. However, only 44 per cent of India’s smartphone sales are online, the majority of sales still take place in brick-and-mortar stores.

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As for Xiaomi, the Chinese tech company’s 34 per cent sales this year came from retail stores, reveals Counterpoint Research. However, Samsung, Xiaomi’s competitor, gets 57 per cent of its sales from offline stores.

Xiaomi India head says that the company will now partner with phone vendors to offer other products like Xiaomi TV or security cameras, as competition is less intense. The company will focus on expanding its store network beyond 18,000 in India. He added that some stores have been found selling rival brands prominently in the stores while having a Xiaomi branding. The company will address this marketing issue.

Countrtpoint Research reveals that Xiaomi has lost its position to Samsung in the country. Samsung currently has 20 per cent market share in India while Xiaomi stands at 16 per cent. Counterpoint analyst Tarun Pathak stated, "Offline remains a key platform as India embraces the premiumisation trend. Consumers spending more would like to have the look and feel of the premium product."

Xiaomi India head reveals that the company will now hire more store promoters - salespeople who lure, pitch and sell phones to buyers inside outlets. It targets tripling the count of promoters to 12,000 by the end of next year compared to early 2023 levels.

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