Xiaomi bets big on offline space, to open Mi Home in Hyderabad soon

In a bid to tap the offline space in India, Chinese handset maker Xiaomi, which has 70 Mi Home stores in China, is planning to open 100 Mi Home stores in India over the next two years, Xiaomi India head Manu Jain told TOI on Thursday. The company launched its first Mi Home Store in Bengaluru during the day and is expected to launch one in Hyderabad soon.
Currently, Xiaomi clocks only 10% of its sales offline while the rest comes from the online route. “This fiscal, we expect around 20-25% of sales to come from the offline space in the country. We have opened our first Mi Home store in Bengaluru and in the next few months, we will be opening stores in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad,” he said.
The company’s India head explained that in the next few months, the focus will be on devising an apt business model and ensuring that the stores become profitable. He explained that in the country, the cost of end products jump multi-fold because of different layers in the supply as well as distribution chain due to which efficiencies as well as profitability is low in the offline space.
Jain explained that the company had applied to the government for single brand licence and hopes to get it soon. For now, Xiaomi will have a partner operate its stores and the company along with the partner will jointly invest in the upcoming stores.
Xiaomi, that crossed the $ 1 billion revenue mark in India in 2016, is hopeful of launching a couple of new product categories this year. Xiaomi entered India in 2014 and apart from smartphones, also sells air purifiers, wearables, Bluetooth speakers and power banks.