Riding on its success in offline sales, Chinese smartphone major Xiaomi intends to double its brick-and-mortar Mi Home stores in India to about 100 by the mid of next year.

“It’s doing very well, and we have now reached 50 stores across the top 10 cities of Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Right now the aim is to focus on these big cities, while for smaller cities we prefer to focus on Mi PreferredPartners (third party stores),” Manu Jain, Managing Director, Xiaomi India, told BusinessLine on the sidelines of the ‘Qualcomm 4G/5G Summit 2018’ here.

“One year ago our presence in offline was negligible—almost zero—and two-thirds of the market was still offline. That’s when we decided to build an offline presence also,” he said, adding that the venture was “highly successful”.

In September, Xiaomi opened its first offline store in Bengaluru, embarking on a venture to sell offline, years after of selling directly to customers over e-commerce sites.

During the second quarter (April-June) of this calendar year, the company shipped more than 10 million smartphones in India, which is the biggest market outside China.

According to the latest report by market research firm Counterpoint Research, Xiaomi recorded its highest-ever shipments in India in a quarter during the third quarter of this year. This was driven by the new launch of the Redmi 6 series and the offline expansion.

Xiaomi topped the smartphone segment with a 27 per cent marketshare during the third quarter, higher than 22 per cent recorded during the same period a year ago. The company also launched a new sub-brand Pocophone during the quarter, targeting the growing mid- to high-tier segment. Smartphone segment contributed to half of the total handset market during Q3 of 2018, the report, released on Tuesday said.

The company will launch 5G phones in India as and when the spectrum is available and the eco-system is conducive.

(The reporter is in Hong Kong at the invitation of Qualcomm)

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