OnePlus, one of the prevalent Chinese smartphone makers has decided to make a whopping investment of Rs. 100 crore to expand its offline retail presence. As part of this decision, the company has planned to open 3000 new outlets to expand its reach across tier 3 and tier 4 cities in the country. The major aim of this company is to sell its products such as smartphones, connected devices, and smart TVs to a wide range of user base.
As of now, OnePlus has about 5000 retail outlets across the nation. It includes contemporary trade retail outlets via 14-15 partners such as Vijay Sales, Sangeetha Mobiles, Reliance Digital, and more. On the general trade front, this company has more than 3000 outlets across 800 cities. Navnit Nakra, the new Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at OnePlus India said, ‘8,000 shops will happen in the next couple of quarters. We are monitoring the covid-19 situation and the expansion will be a little tempered.’
To make it an overall count, OnePlus might open 14 big experience outlets in the subsequent 6 months in India. On the whole, it would become a total of 44 outlets in India. Besides opening new outlets, the company is also seeking to expand its service network centers from 65 cities to 100 cities in the next 1 year. Despite the company is planning for a highly determined offline expansion, the sales figures are ’tilted’ towards the online channel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Nakra.
He further added, ‘We are seeing a fair amount of demand coming from online.’ With this statement, he clarified that the expansion of the firm won’t be deferred. Still, he said that the firm is working with all its offline partners to make sure the supply of products is done properly. Nakra said that the firm is in work with the popular e-commerce platform Flipkart to enhance its smart TV business in India.
Navnit Nakra said, ‘Whenever we believe that offline needs a higher push, we will help our partners. We are close partners with Amazon and now similar efforts are being made for smart TV with Flipkart.’ On Wednesday, OnePlus rolled out its flagship model OnePlus 8T after launching OnePlus 8 Pro in recent times. With a market share of about 29 percent at the end of the 2nd quarter, OnePlus was the topmost brand in the premium smartphone market in India. OnePlus is slightly ahead of Samsung and Apple secures the third position with a market share of 23 percent, as per Counterpoint Research.
At the beginning of this year, OnePlus disclosed its new product diversification tactic in India and worldwide. As part of its strategies, the company is developing a complete ecosystem for smartphones, smart TVs, and connected devices with reasonable prices as the major factor. Navnit said, ‘For phones, we are focusing on premium and mid-premium. Nord smartphone is the result of that strategy.’ He said that the company is planning to launch entry-level smart TVs into the market.
As per the latest reports, by 2021, OnePlus will manufacture all its smart TVs in India. The company has initiated the manufacturing of the Y series in the country this year. By 2021, the company will manufacture all OnePlus smart TVs domestically including the Q and the U series. Nakra said, ‘It is a massive investment from us to be closer to the market.’ Still, he didn’t disclose many details regarding the investment size for its manufacturing.
OnePlus has already started manufacturing its complete smartphone portfolio in the country through Oppo’s factory in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The firm has already commenced the process of rolling out its connected devices in different categories. It includes automobile, health, smart speakers, smart lighting, and office productivity.
The VC at OnePlus India said, ‘We are moving away from the old appliance world in India to connected devices which can talk to us. In the new focus areas, OnePlus will have a larger play in India and globally. We are trying very hard to see if we can launch new products around mid-November.’ Stay tuned to this website to get the latest telecom updates, tech news, and more.