Huawei Hints at Offline Retail Stores Like 'Mi Home', 'Moto Hub'

Riding on the success of its "Honor" sub-brand, the time is ripe for the Chinese smartphone maker Huawei to ramp up its offline presence in India, especially in tier II and III cities, says a top company executive. Xiaomi already has two exclusive retail stores Mi Home in Bengaluru while Lenovo-owned Motorola on August 3 launched six Moto Hubs in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai. "Since the skew is heavily in favour of going offline, we are working on strengthening this channel. Given the growing 4G penetration, we are set to serve tier II and III markets and working towards this on a priority basis," P. Sanjeev, Vice President, Sales, Huawei India-Consumer Business Group, told IANS. Chinese brands are not only strengthening their positions on home turf but fast expanding beyond mainland China, and India is among their top destinations for registering big numbers.

While overall global smartphone shipments grew three percent Year-over-Year (YoY), reaching 365 million units in the second quarter of 2017, Chinese smartphone brands marked a record 48 percent market share worldwide, with India remaining a key focus geography, says market research firm Counterpoint Research. With 20 percent overseas smartphones shipments (YoY), Huawei is one of the fastest-growing Chinese brands. In India, it recorded 1.5 percent market share in the second quarter this year. Keeping an eye on the upcoming festive season, Honor is focused on enhancing engagement with its customers which goes beyond transactional offers to that of more enduring value.

In a bid to enhance after-sale device support, smartphone manufacturer Huawei last month launched 17 exclusive service centres across the country. According to Sanjeev, with the launch of these service centres, Huawei can now assure best in class after-sale services to its consumers. In the coming months, Honor plans to unleash a host of products, in various segments and categories. In the hot-selling Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000 category in India, Honor has three of its best-selling products -- Honor 6X, Honor Holly 3 and 3 Plus.

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