Smartphone biggies shed ‘only online’ tag in region

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 18

With brick-and-mortar stores still accounting for around 80% of total smartphone sales in the northern region, major brands exclusive to online platform are now diversifying to the offline space to have a larger pie of the market. After Motorola, Xiaomi and Honor, the latest to compete through retail presence is Realme.

Nationally, online sales contribute 30-35% of total smartphone sales while in Punjab and Haryana it is less than 20%. In Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, it is much lower than the neighbouring states. This has compelled major brands to expand their footprints.

“We are expanding offline to give more touch and feel of the product to our customers. We strive to give our customers a combination of power and style in our product,” said Nidhi Bhatia, product manager, Realme India.

Indian consumer prefers to research online but when it comes to purchasing a mobile handset, they prefer offline stores.

Madhav Sheth, chief executive officer, Realme India, said, “Considering the rapidly growing customer demand, we are making the device available at our offline stores. Initially, the device was available for sale at Flipkart.com and our official website and it saw a phenomenal response.”

According to experts, smartphone makers have realised that though online mode is an important channel, to grab the sustainable market share, offline presence is a must. The companies are opening stores so that prospective buyers can get a hands-on experience of the smartphones.

“People in Punjab and Chandigarh are a bit conscious while making up their mind to purchase a smartphone. They prefer to touch and feel the phone before purchasing it. Moreover, with a majority of the brands expanding their presence offline, it makes easier for them to buy phones of their choice at retail stores,” Infinix India chief executive officer Anish Kapoor told The Tribune.

Brands like Samsung, Oppo and Vivo have been strengthening their presence in the past through different format of stores, including multi-brand and exclusive, as the battle for offline channels is becoming more competitive. The traditional offline players have vast retail reach with penetration in smaller towns and cities and they invest heavily in retail promotions.

Notwithstanding distribution cost and other expenses involved in offline stores, the smartphone makers are expanding to reach out to potential customers.

For example, Xiaomi has plans to open over 10,000 retail stores across different channels by the end of this year. The company is expecting 50% smartphone sales from offline channel by this year-end. 

Similarly, Realme, which started as an online exclusive brand, has plans to have presence across 20,000 outlets in 150 cities by this year-end. Currently, the company’s handsets are available in 8,000 stores throughout the country, out of which Punjab has 455 stores. 

However, according to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), it is difficult to spread wide and deep quickly.

Why opening shops? 

• Brick-and-mortar stores command 80% sales
• Customers research online, but buy offline
• People want to have hands-on experience before purchase

.