Xiaomi has just opened its first official brick and mortar store in Saudi Arabia. The company’s new Mi Store is situated in the Electron Commercial Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and was officially opened earlier this month.

This marks the opening of the first official physical store from the Chinese tech giant in the region, which will sell Mi branded products like smartphones to various other consumer electronics products and related accessories a well. This includes products like smartwatches, and even smart home appliances like vacuum cleaners and other products from its vast ecosystem.

These products will also range from high end, mid range, to entry level products for Saudi customers. This marks a major step for the smartphone maker as it was recently ranked among the top three smartphone brands in the country in the first quarter of this year by Canalys, a market analysis based firm. Xiaomi held a market share of 12 percent in the region in Q1 2021.

The company’s Saudi state manager Wang Xingang added that “With the development of China’s scientific and technological strength, the smart electronic products, including smartphones, are deeply loved by consumers in the Middle East.” The official also stated his optimism regarding the brand’s performance in the Saudi market, and even expressing his hope for additional Mi stores to open in the country in the near future to introduce the “China smart manufacturing” to the world.

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Google is keen to set up brick and mortar stores in India, according to a new report from Economic Times. The newspaper agency, citing internal sources, revealed that the company is currently in talks with multiple malls to set up stores across the country. The plan is to set up “experience centres”. It is said that the company was pleased with the response received to its pop up centers opened recently in Mumbai and Delhi-NCR regions to showcase the newly launched Pixel 2 smartphones.

A senior executive of one of the malls which hosted the pop up centre said, “They got a flavour of how physical stores are also important because you can’t explain many of the features online.” The ET report adds that Google is planning to open the stores by Q4 2018. Apart from Pixel smartphones, the company is reportedly planning to sell other Google branded products such as Google Home Speakers, Chromecast, Daydream VR, and Pixel laptops.

RELATED: Xiaomi Opens Largest Flagship Mi Home Store in China With All Its Products In Stock

It’s not surprising to see Google looking to expand its reach in the offline market. There’s a very solid trend among smartphone companies strengthening their hold in the retail market. OPPO, Vivo, and even Xiaomi are good examples of how strong offline presence helps to improve sales and revenue, even when the smartphone market is getting crowded. Google is way behind the top players in the Indian market which include Samsung and Xiaomi, and it makes sense to start taking steps to build a good chain of brick and mortar stores.

At present, big smartphones companies are adopting either single-brand license or franchise route to get their retail stores in India. The report didn’t mention what kind of strategy Google had in mind. Apple has already applied for the single brand license in India, while companies like Samsung and Xiaomi have currently adopted the franchise route to open their stores in the country. It is worth mentioning that Xiaomi has also applied for single brand license in India, but we still don’t know when it’ll get approved by the Government.

(Source)

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