LG Electronics India has hired Saif Iqbal, Snapdeal’s business head for electronics, to shape its e-commerce strategy by December, people aware of the development said.
Iqbal is an alumnus of Indian School of Business and IIT Roorkee. Earlier he was the Business Head for Electronics Category (Computers, Home Entertainment and Appliances) at Snapdeal.com – where he headed the Innovation function, to develop new business and growth areas.
LG plans to launch televisions, white goods and smartphones exclusively for online sales so as to minimize the conflict with brick-and-mortar retailing, they said.
Two senior industry executives said LG is one of the last big consumer electronics brands in the country to adopt the online route.
They said LG was wary of this since it did not want to antagonize the brick-and-mortar channel, but with online predatory discounting fizzling out and e-commerce accounting for almost 30 per cent of smartphone and 10 per cent of television sales, the company has decided to flesh out a full-fledged strategy.
“LG plans to partner with leading e-commerce sites like Amazon , Snapdeal and Flipkart so that it can launch online exclusive models, control price and the service experience,” said one of the executive cited earlier. “It also wants to float brand stores in these online marketplaces like the way Samsung has done. While there may be some products which will be sold both online and offline, the brand will ensure there are no arbitrary discounts.”
Last week, LG entered into an exclusively partnership with Flipkart for online sales of its latest flagship smartphone, G5.
LG India managing director Ki Wan Kim had recently told Economic Times that he had purchased LG products from leading e-commerce sites and seen that there are issues with installation and service. He had said the company will venture into online sales if it becomes a mainstream sales channel.