Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone brand which was recently declared as the second most popular brand in India by IDC, is planning to open branded stores in the country to fuel its offline sales. According to a top executive of the company, India is one of the major target markets for Xiaomi and it is planning to strengthen the offline presence in the coming years.
On the development, Manu Kumar Jain, Xiaomi’s India head said that the company had applied for the licence way back in April 2016 and the approval is currently pending. He further added that Xiaomi has completed all the paper formalities required by the government and they are hopeful of getting the approval from the government in next few months. He also added that the sources in government have confirmed the approval of application by department of industrial policy and promotion, however, the final approval needs to be given by the ministry of finance.
Getting one such license needs at least 30% of the manufacturing to be done in the country. Manu added that most of the smartphones, which are in India market, are manufactured within the country and it fulfills government’s norm for local manufacturing. For keeping the prices competitive, he added that having branded stores is necessary as it removed the layer of wholesalers from the middle and lets the company source it directly to the stores.
Xiaomi currently has around 30% share in the online sales of smartphones and it plans to have similar share in the offline sector as well, by the end of the year. It is planning to open stores in 4-5 cities initially and plans to expand to other cities in the time to come.