Now, get Xiaomi phones offline as 'Mi Home' stores expand to 4 more cities

Xiaomi unveiled its first 'Mi Home' in Bengaluru and will soon expand to 4 other cities in India

China-headquartered consumer electronics company Xiaomi is dominating the Indian smartphone space with the Redmi Note 4 selling as the top model here.

Thanks to its fan base, data by IDC shows that Xiaomi now has a 14.3 percent market share in the Indian smartphone space and the Redmi Note 4 has even beaten Samsung’s Galaxy J2 as the top shipped smartphone in India. 

"Xiaomi’s efforts for operating the Mi.com and frequent short supply of its devices with eTailers were the key reasons for the shift of Indian consumers buying from vendor’s website," noted IDC

Given than for the first time ever, more than half – 51.4 percent – of smartphone shipments in India are from Chinese companies, it is not surprising that Xiaomi is gearing up to expand its presence in India through offline sales channel -- Mi Home. 

Recently, Xiaomi unveiled its first 'Mi Home' in Bengaluru that will allow consumers to experience and buy all Xiaomi products under one roof. The same experience will soon be available in four more cities, including Delhi and Hyderabad, as it looks to increase its revenues from the offline retail market in India.

"Offline sales are about 10 per cent of our total sales and we expect this to grow to 20-30 per cent in the next few years. Over the next few months, we will expand Mi Homes to Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad. We want to bring these five (Mi Homes) to scale, ensure they are profitable before we add more," said Manu Kumar Jain, Vice President, Xiaomi and Managing Director, Xiaomi India  at the Xiaomi Redmi 4 launch event in Delhi.

The company intends to set up 100 such Mi Homes in India over the next two years, added Manu Jain. 

Jain reveals that the company is looking to expand its presence in India by aiming at 2X growth in 2017. Currently, the company employees 230 people and the numbers would grow to 300 in 2017. There were 225 Xiaomi service centres in 2016 that has grown exponentially and would reach 500 mark by July 2017. The company has doubled its warehouses from two to four in just one year. 

During the event, Xiaomi launched Redmi 4, an entry-level budget smartphone and Mi 3C router. The Redmi 4 is a successor to the already famous Redmi 3S. It carries the company legacy forward by offering a very efficient 4100mAh battery in a compact design form. The smartphone, priced at Rs 6,999, will be available from  May 23 on Amazon India, Mi.com and Mi home.

Currently, Xiaomi is only behind Samsung when it comes to market share with healthy 39.8 percent sequential growth in Q1 2017 over previous quarter. Two new launches - Redmi Note 4 and Redmi 4A, in the first quarter of the year not only drove the volume growth for Xiaomi but also helped it to lead online smartphone shipments with 40.6 percent share.