Offline smartphone retailers in India have accused the industry giants, Xiaomi, and Samsung of bias. They claimed that the Chinese and South Korean vendors have diverted a majority of their devices’ stocks to the online channels to avoid giving margins to physical stores, thereby, making it difficult for them to maintain a profit.
The offline vendors said that Samsung was not maintaining price parity, particularly for its mid range Galaxy M series, namely M21 and M31 models. Reportedly, the Korean smartphone maker is selling these smartphone models at more affordable rates on online channels, which in turn, is hampering the offline sellers’ business. Furthermore, Xiaomi is also accused of favoring the e-retailing sector as it is apparently supplying more stocks to its online partners and significantly reducing supply to offline channels.
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The reason for this is most likely profit for Xiaomi, along with customers’ preferences. According to a Xiaomi spokesperson, “The biggest reason for the increase in online sales is the comfort of door-step delivery which gives the informed consumers a sense of safety, without having the need to step out.” This holds especially true now of all times as the world is suffering from the Coronavirus pandemic.
A leading Indian offline retailer said in a statement that, “only Vivo has been consistent when it comes to maintaining stock supply. Even Oppo brought new stocks via imports for new models. They are supporting us but even their margins have come down.” For those unaware, due to various issues in raising production capacity back up to 100 percent in India, various vendors, especially Chinese companies, have been importing newer models to India, which has raised cost as well. The viral outbreak is affecting various manufacturing sites and their reopening. Thus, the imported smartphone arrives at a higher cost due to import duties.
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(Via)
