Mumbai: After facing criticism from the brick and mortar resellers for huge discounting on online marketplaces, Chinese IT hardware company Lenovo is now looking to realign its offline distribution strategy for its smartphone business. Lenovo’s Mobile Business Group is planning to focus more on offline space, along with its continued engagement in the e Commerce space.
Lenovo which launched K6 Note on Wednesday mainly targeting offline buyers in the country, will sell its latest K6 Note offline, making it the first model of the K series to be sold through the traditional brick and mortar route.
“Definitely, we need to protect our online position. But the dynamics of online and offline markets are slightly different, with online customers are not looking at touch and feel and they are not metro-centric, but they are limited by internet access,” Sudhin Mathur, Executive Director at Lenovo Mobile Business Group, told BusinessLine. (Read the full story here)
Lenovo announced plans to have 50 exclusive Lenovo and Motorola service centres in the country. The company also revealed plans to expand the number to 100 by mid next year.
Earlier in the month of March, Lenovo received huge flak from the offline channel partners for offering huge discounts and better models to the online marketplaces. Mobile phone stores and electronics chains in major markets together had decided to not to sell Lenovo smartphones. Large and national retail chains also agreed not to stock Lenovo smartphones.
“We have raised the issue with Lenovo and decided not to sell or push their models till they decide on uniform trade terms. This is unhealthy competition,” senior executive with the All India Mobile Retailers Association told gadgetsnow.com. Lenovo did not respond to the offline partners grievances immediately after the report, but it maintained that company has a strong channel legacy.
Lenovo has been the No.1 online smartphone brand in India for the past seven quarters with 24.09 per cent market share and ranks No.2 in overall smartphone market with a 9.56 per cent market share. The country’s total shipment of smartphones stood at 32 million units, according to IDC study.