Gionee All Set To Build Biggest Offline Retail Network In India

Chinese smartphone maker Gionee plans an aggressive foray into physical retail space as the company sells its entire products through offline stores in India

At present, the company has a presence in 42,000 retail outlets with nearly 70 per cent exclusive stores and around 555 exclusive service stations. The leading global smartphone maker is planning to increase its exclusive stores to 275 stores by the end of 2017.

On Tuesday (March 21), Gionee has launched the A1 smartphone, which sports a 16MP front camera. The smartphone was first showcased at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 in Barcelona last month.

The company also unveiled a campaign called Selfiestan which is targeting the growing breed of selfie enthusiasts in the country. This campaign will feature their brand ambassador Alia Bhatt.

Gionee India CEO and managing director Arvind R. Vohra has, however, a different gameplan for the firm's service centres. He is betting big on the service centres which can be changed into exclusive stores if required.

"These service centres can be used as changing and upgrading or re-surfacing phones," said Vohra.

He went on add that the company is leaving no stone unturned to expand business in every possible way.

"Service exclusivity is far more important than sales exclusivity," he added.

According to several reports, established in 2002, Gionee sells over 30 million handsets per year worldwide and ranks 10th in the smartphone market. Gionee India was established in 2013 and is among the top 10 smartphone brands in India. The company will have 18 exclusive service centres in the region.

Gionee plans to increase its shop promoters workforce to 20,000 from 12,000 by the end of this year.

Vohra was of the view that the low-cost smartphones were getting sold online. The sale of phones in the range of Rs 15,000-20000 category is not growing.

He further clarified that in India only 20 per cent of all the phones are getting sold online.

"We only sell 1 per cent of our stock online rest is offline," he added.

He said the government's demonetisation move has not impacted the revenue target of the company and it is very much on track.

The company has witnessed 70 per cent growth as compared to last fiscal. The firm has earned more than Rs 4,000 crore revenue in 2016 and their target is around Rs 10,000 crore for 2017.