Xiaomi aims to have 10,000 retail stores in India

Xiaomi is eyeing to have 10,000 retail stores in India by the end of this year. Chinese tech major is also expecting 50% of its business to come from the offline route.

Manu Jain, Vice-President and MD, Xiaomi, said, "About two years ago, we realised that while we had a 50 per cent share in online sales, our offline presence was negligible. That's when we started our offline expansion."

Xiaomi is further introducing a new retail format 'Mi Studio' in the country as it competes head-on with rival Samsung. 

"Mi Studios aim to offer premium brand experience in 50 top cities. This format is an optimised version of Mi Homes replicating the same design and displaying modern minimalist interiors," Jain stated. 

Starting its India journey as an online-only brand in 2014, the company now has more than 6,000 outlets across three formats, including Mi Homes (experiential stores -75 in number), Mi Preferred Partners (retail stores) and Mi Stores (in smaller towns). 

Jain further added, "We aim to open over 10,000 retail stores across these four offline channels by end of the year 2019. About 50 per cent of our smartphone sales are expected to come from the offline market by end of this year."