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Moving beyond mobiles, fitness bands and television sets, Chinese tech company Xiaomi is looking to expand its portfolio of smart devices and other accessories here in India.
In addition, the company will ramp up its offline presence through different store formats.
Xiaomi’s smart devices portfolio now includes ‘smart home solutions’ such as air purifiers and home security cameras, and smart LED lights (that can be controlled via an app).
Manufacturing in India
According to Raghu Reddy, Head of Category and Online Sales, Xiaomi India, the company will also explore the possibility of manufacturing some of these products here, if they “achieve a certain critical mass”.
At present, 90 per cent of the smartphones sold in India are manufactured here.
“We are already ramping up our smart devices portfolio with offerings like the Smart LED lights. Other offerings like shoes have also been launched. With regard to manufacturing, we will look at opportunities once a particular category reaches the critical mass,” he told BusinessLine .
Reddy was in the city to launch the latest Xiaomi smartphones, Redmi Y3 and Redmi 7.
The Chinese tech major is also ramping up its offline presence with smaller format standalone stores ( 300-400 sq ft big) targeting specific localities in big cities. These stores, called Mi Studio, have been rolled out in Delhi and Bengaluru on a pilot basis.
This apart, Xiaomi’s other standalone store formats include ‘Mi Stores’ targeting Tier-II, -III, and -IV towns and Mi Home, the large format shops covering 1000 sq ft-1200 sq ft in select big cities.
It also has ‘Mi Preferred Partner’ stores (the multi-brand outlets) selling mobile phones and other offerings across 40 cities and tie-ups with large-format retailers.
According to Reddy, there will be a near 66 per cent rise in its points of sales (POS) to 10,000 by the end of this year.
Currently, Xiaomi products are available across 6,000-odd POS.
“Nearly, 50 per cent of our sales are expected to come from the offline channels by 2019. At present, it is around 30-35 per cent,” he said.
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