Xiaomi has built its reputation on being an online-only brand, ushering in an era of flash sales and the accompanying hype that goes along with such a format. The Chinese manufacturer has now decided to expand its horizons in India by opening up its doors to offline sales via brick-and-mortar shops.
This isn’t the first time Xiaomi has chosen to go down the offline route. It had previously partnered with chains like The Mobile Store and Airtel to sell its wares. It’s now tied up with Just Buy Live and Innocomm to further increase its reach to approximately 5000 offline outlets across India.
That’s a major boost from its previous limited distribution coverage. Just Buy Live is an e-distributor which lets shopkeepers, corporate businesses and retailers buy goods from the platform through an e-commerce system. Xiaomi claims that the model lets the company cut out middlemen in between.
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On the other hand, Innocomm is a subsidiary of Foxconn, acting as its distributor offshoot. The firm operates on a direct-to-retail model of vending. It makes sense for Xiaomi to partner with the company given its Made In India phones are manufactured at Foxconn’s Chennai facilities.
A number of major large format retailers will now be selling Xiaomi phones, a list which includes vendors like LOT Mobiles, Poorvika, Sangeetha and Big C. Handsets to be sold offline consist of the Redmi 2, Redmi 2 Prime, Redmi Note Prime, Redmi Note 3, and Mi 5. In a press statement, the company clarified that all its smartphones will now be available across major Tier 2 cities in India.
As for the newly launched Mi Max, Xiaomi said the device will hit offline shops on July 13. It also stated that the prices of its phones will be similar to their online costs.