Xiaomi might setup exclusive brand retail stores in India soon

Chinese electronics giant and mobile manufacturer Xiaomi, is now targeting the offline market and is aiming at gaining a strong foothold in the highly lucrative Indian market. And as we say this, the company has applied for license to set-up and operate brand retail stores in an attempt to increase its offline distribution.

Xiaomi Country Manager and India Head, Manu Kumar Jain, at launch of the company's latest product, Redmi Note 4, said that the company had applied for the license in March-April last year. The company had specifically applied for single brand retail license, under the category of cutting edge technology.

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Further, he confirmed that the company's application has been approved by the DIPP butit was yet to be cleared by the Finance Ministry and other offices involved in the approval process. "Our application is pending with the government. What we understand is that it has been approved by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, but finance ministry and others still have to clear it,"

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While it is still pending, Jain has revealed that the single-brand store will be part of the company's marketing strategy to increase offline presence. Moreover, he has said that the company will be adopting Direct to Retail model to limit the number of wholesalers.

"We plan to set up offline base. We will start with 4-5 cities in the next few months, and will be in Ahmadabad in next 5-6 months," Jain told BGR. "We will have one partner in every city and will give directly to them, in order to part benefit to users."
Xiaomi aims to get 25-30 percent share offline by the end of this year.

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