Smartphone discounts coming soon: Huawei, Realme looking to clear inventory

If you are planning to buy a new smartphone then this is going to be good news for you. You can expect some exciting discounts on the smartphone later this month. Online-focused handset brands like Asus, Lenovo, Realme, Huawei and Honor are looking forward to getting rid of the unsold inventory before the new FDI in e-commerce policy. The new FDI will effect from February 1, 2019.

According to Economic Times report, a person familiar with the matter said, that Huawei/Honor, Asus, Realme and Lenovo are going to face a big issue with the stock. On the other hand, OnePlus don't work with much inventory, that's why they are not worried about clearing the stock.

"They have Diwali inventory still stuck with two major platforms. They had pumped in around 4 million units for the festive season, and still have almost half of the inventory lying. This is the reason you see Realme and Huawei going to the offline channel," the person told Economic Times.

The tweaks which are made in new FDI in e-commerce policy included barring online e-commerce site from signing exclusive deals for products on their platforms. The government also directs that a single vendor will be able to sell a maximum of 25% of its inventory on an e-commerce website. This will force brands to work with different e-commerce players.

Madhav Sheth, CEO, Realme Mobile Telecommunications (India) told Economic Times, that they are having "sizeable smartphones inventory, currently with Amazon and Flipkart" but said it is awaiting clarification if the February 1 deadline will be extended.

"OnePlus doesn't have any inventory related issue since it predicts the demand on a regular basis," he said. Navkendar Singh, associate research director at IDC India told ET. "The problem in offline is that you can't really enter small towns if you don't have a presence because then there's an appetite issue," he said.

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