Xiaomi cashes in on India's festive season, sells over 500,000 smartphones in 3 days
After two years of its stay in India, Xiaomi has learned a thing or two about the country’s festive season.
The Chinese company sold over 500,000 smartphones in India between Oct. 1 and Oct. 3, it said Wednesday. That’s two phones sold every second. The milestone comes as e-commerce giants Flipkart, Amazon India, and Snapdeal are offering massive discounts to customers on electronic and other products.
Though India is the fastest growing smartphone market, selling 500,000 smartphones in three days is unheard of. Xiaomi said its feat is an “industry-first” for any smartphone company in India. To put it into some perspective, Xiaomi sold about 2.3 million smartphones in India during the first two quarters combined this year.
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It’s not hard to see why Xiaomi’s smartphones continue to sell decently in India. The company has earned a name selling high-end and mid-range durable smartphones at a low cost. It sells vast majority of its products online, cutting overhead expenditure to further reduce the price of its smartphones and tablets. Xiaomi has also got the first mover advantage that helps its products create a bigger impact than offerings by its rivals like Lenovo and Huawei.
The ongoing festive sale by major e-commerce companies has also played an instrumental role. Over the weekend, Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal kickstarted their Diwali sale. Diwali is as big as Christmas in the West and it’s traditionally the time when people do vast majority of their yearly shopping in the country. The mid-range Redmi 3S was the best selling product on Flipkart, and the Redmi Note 3 outranked all competition on Amazon India.
“Consumer spending is at its peak during this part of the year,” said Tarun Pathak, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research. “Smartphones sales during this time of the year are one and a half times bigger than normal quarterly season.”
Amazon India clocked over 1.5 million units sale in the first 12 hours of its sale, the company told Mashable India in a statement. Snapdeal said 66,000 unique sellers in over 200 cities and towns across India received orders in the first two days of its Unbox Diwali Sale. Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce company, said it sold more smartphones in one hour of the sale than the entire retail of India.
The other thing that works for Xiaomi is that it has a tie up with more than one e-commerce company, giving it access to more eyeballs. “I am not surprised [by Xiaomi's achievement],” Pathak added. “Xiaomi has good presence across all the three platforms now.”
