Xiaomi has been losing ground to Samsung in recent months
The president of Xiaomi India said that after years of actively betting on online commerce, Xiaomi will focus on boosting sales in retail stores to revive smartphone sales.
In recent years, thanks to Amazon, WalMart, Flipkart and other e-commerce channels, companies like Xiaomi have been able to quickly enter the Indian market with 600 million smartphone users. While 44% of smartphone sales in India are now online sales, retail stores account for over half of the market. Xiaomi expects this share to grow further.
According to Counterpoint Research, only 34% of Xiaomi’s sales in India this year came from retail stores, with the rest sold online. By comparison, 57% of Samsung’s sales come from physical stores.
Xiaomi is changing strategy to revive smartphone sales and catch up with Samsung.
Xiaomi plans to further expand its existing network of 18,000 retail stores in India and work with partners to sell more other devices.
Xiaomi plans to hire more sales staff, aiming to triple the number of salespeople to 12,000 by the end of next year.
Xiaomi came to India in 2014, eventually taking first place in the country. However, in recent months, due to declining sales of low-end phones, Xiaomi has a 16% share of the Indian smart phone market, while Samsung has a 20% share.
