The decision to launch Alcatel One Touch IdolX+ through e-commerce major Flipkart has paid off well for Alcatel. Flipkart said the stocks were completely sold out within 24 hours of the launch. The total number of handsets sold out was around 5000. While the company is trying to organize more stocks, customers have been demanding the phones to be made available soon.
Alcatel onetouch launched its smartphone Idol X+ last week in the city in an exclusive partnership with the country’s biggest online retail store, Flipkart.com. The smartphone was made available to the customers on 2nd june midnight. Priced at Rs.16,999/- bundled with a Boomband and JBL headphones, the phone stock sold out on Flipkart on day 1 itself.
As Alcatel is fairly a new player in the smartphone market, Flipkart was doing it bit to push the product. It worked at creating brand awareness before putting up the phone for sale. The company also created social media push around the Alcatel brand and its smartphones on both Facebook and Twitter, said Sandeep Karwa, Associate Director, Flipkart.com.
Reacting to the massive response it received, Praveen Valecha, Regional Director India BU, APAC, Alcatel OneTouch commented, “We are extremely happy and motivated with the response received by the customers with IdolX+ being sold out on Flipkart.com on the first day itself. I believe online retail partnering is a great initiative for us and we will continue our strategic relationship with Flipkart, apart from walk-in Alcatel One Touch experience zones across India.”
Certainly, the quick sales response is driving more smartphone vendors to take the online route over offline retail. However, more and more IT distributor associations across India are trying to protect their businesses from this increasing trend towards online marketplaces, which have been hitting their business at large.
