Coolpad plans to broaden its retail strategy in India

Coolpad, one of the largest smartphone companies from China, has become the latest smartphone maker to broaden its retail strategy in India from online-only and tap into bricks-and-mortar stores for higher sales volumes, saying it aims to sell five million units a year through just the offline channel by 2019.

A statement forwarded by the company states that the company is aiming to cover more than 10 states and is targeting sales volume of one million handsets by establishing 5,000 core shops and 10,000 retail shops by 2017.

In the same statement, Mike Wang, Country Manager, Coolpad India, said, "We foresee our growth in more than 15 states with 3 million in sales volumes by the end of 2018, subsequently, making a nationwide presence with sales volume of 5 million annually by 2019."

The company plans to establish 3,000 shops to showcase its products in the first half of 2017, a period in which it said it will roll out five-six products in different price segments.

Wang further added, "We have the plan to launch a series of products which are only for offline, like Mega series will be mainly for offline thereafter."

The handset maker has so far been focused on online sales in India through its partnership with Amazon India. The American e-commerce company is now its partner for offline presence as well. Coolpad is following in the footsteps of home market rivals such as Xiaomi and LeEco that have also tapped into the offline route after initial focus on the online channel alone, in a bid to widen its target customer base.

In the statement, Syed Tajuddin, CEO, Coolpad India, added, "The Indian market has great scope and Coolpad would like to take advantage of that to develop brand recall within our target audience."