Xiaomi: Xiaomi to focus more on offline mobile sales in India, here’s why – Times of India

With 600 million smartphone users, India is one of the world’s fastest-growing markets. Mobile sales through e-commerce platforms in India have also significantly increased over the past few years. The reach of Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkarthas penetrated the farthest interiors of the country. This growth has even helped smartphone brands to expand in the market.After years of big bets on e-commerce, the Chinese smartphone maker,Xiaomi will now focus on boosting its sales in the country from retail outlets. In an interview with Reuters, the company’s India president announced its offline focus, as the company seeks to revive smartphone sales. Xiaomi, which once led India’s smartphone market has now fallen behind South Korea’s Samsung.
Samsung, which offers a wider portfolio of premium phones, recently took over Xiaomi’s leading market position in India. The offline push from the Chinese brand which historically focussed on budget phones comes months after the shift in the country’s smartphone market. Currently, The South Korean giant has a 20% market share in India, while Xiaomi controls 16% of the market.
Xiaomi’s plans to push offline sales
“Our market position 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.” Xiaomi’s India head, Muralikrishnan B said.
Currently, Xiaomi has a network of 18,000 stores in India and the company plans to further expand it. The company is also planning to partner with phone vendors to offer other products, which include Xiaomi TVs or security cameras. Muralikrishnan said that the competition in devices other than smartphones is less intense.
Xiaomi also discovered that some partner stores which puts the company’s branding outside shops were displaying rival brands more prominently inside, he continued. The company is also planning to address this marketing issue.
The company is planning to hire more store promoters or salespeople who can lure, pitch and sell phones to prospective buyers inside outlets. The company aims to triple the count of promoters to 12,000 by the end of 2024, Muralikrishnan noted.
Retail smartphone sales in India
44% of India’s smartphone sales are now online. However, the brick-and-mortar sale segment remains the more extensive play and Xiaomi expects it to grow further.

According to a report by Counterpoint, Xiaomi’s India unit, recorded 34% of sales from retail stores in 2023. Meanwhile, the rest of the sales came from online channels which have been a dominant source for the company for a long time. To compare, Samsung recorded 57% of its sales from offline channels.
“Offline remains a key platform as India embraces the premiumisation trend,” said Counterpoint analyst Tarun Pathak. “Consumers spending more would like to have the look and feel of the premium product.”
Xiaomi faces other challenges in India
Apart from the dipping sales, there are other major challenges that Xiaomi is facing in India. A government agency froze the company’s $673 million bank assets in 2022. The agency accused Xiaomi of making illegal remittances to foreign entities in the name of royalties. However, the company has denied the allegations. “We’ll continue to be confident … that ultimately our position will be heard and validated,” Muralikrishnan added.