Xiaomi expands rural presence, open 500 retail stores in India

Chinese electronics major Xiaomi today said that it has opened 500 retail stores in rural parts of India.

Located across 14 states, all new Mi Stores opened on October 29 and currently operational in metro cities.

Manu Jain, Vice President, Xiaomi and Managing Director, Xiaomi India, said, "Over last few quarters, the offline segment has been a great success story for us, with our offline market share growing about 40 times in one year. While our Mi Home & Mi Preferred Partner stores have performed exceptionally well in metro and large cities, our presence in smaller towns and villages was still negligible till now."

The new Mi Store outlets serve as Xiaomi's prime retail stores situated in several towns ranging from tier 3, 4, 5 and below. With these initiatives, the brand has rapidly expanded its offline presence in rural India.

He said, "Offline retail is still a huge segment in our country with nearly 40 percent of the offline market focused in rural regions. As a brand, we are dedicated to ensuring that all our Mi Fans can easily access and make the most of our amazing products of the highest quality at incredibly honest prices.

According to the company these stores can also be found in some of the most remote corners of the nation.

"With these new retail measures, we are taking it a step further, and serving as a gateway to building a "smarter India" wherein all Mi Fans and consumers across rural India are also equally empowered to enjoy the best of smart technology. We are positive that this move will transform many lives for the better, and we promise to continue bringing them the best of innovative products as well as innovative brand experience," Jain added.

The Chinese smartphone maker said that this is second Guinness world record achievement in the last 3 months.

Xiaomi also claims that in just a span of one year upon entering the offline market, it has already gained prominent presence across 50+ cities with established networks of over 4000 Mi Preferred Partners and several leading Large Format Retail (LFR) partners, and over 50 Mi Home stores.