If you’re looking to buy a smartphone, nowadays you would now probably check online before heading towards your old brick and mortar stores near you. Also, thanks to the exclusivity of mobiles to online-only sale model, India E-commerce channels especially Flipkart, Amazon India and Mi.com captured a record 38 per cent share of the total smartphone shipment in India.
As per the latest Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service report for Q1 2018, Indian e-commerce space grew faster than the offline segment during Q1 2018. Thanks to the exclusive online launches and strong promotions they were able to capture a huge chunk of the smartphone sales.
Also, due to the rapid penetration of 4G and low-cost data plans (a big thanks to Reliance Jio), data consumption has increased. More and more users beyond metro cities, in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities are geared up to browse and shop online. Smartphones are one of the best selling products, both Flipkart and Amazon India are effectively scaling up their operations to target these first-time shoppers.
“the smartphone shipments in the offline segment declined by 3%, the online segment grew by 4% YoY. This is driven by the increase in the number of models launching on online platforms coupled with aggressive offers,” said Karn Chauhan, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research. “Additionally, smartphone brands have now adopted a multichannel strategy instead of relying on a single channel for distribution of their products and this has increased the competition over the past few quarters,” he further added.
Xiaomi continued its dominance in the Indian online marketplace during Q1 2018 with a share of 57 per cent. Samsung is trailing way behind with only 14 per cent share, followed by Huawei and its sub-brand Honor with 8 per cent share. Out of the top five smartphones sold in India online, four of them are from Xiaomi.
It would be interesting to see how Indian online smartphone market thrives during the Q2 2018. Xiaomi is in full swing with the launch of Redmi Y2, while Honor also brought is budget offerings Honor 7A and Honor 7C in India. In the premium segment, OnePlus would continue to dominate with its newly launched OnePlus 6.