Mumbai: Chinese smartphone brand Zopo is betting big on the brick and mortar to expand its India footprints. The company, which forayed into the country in 2015, is looking at expanding its distribution network to over 200 regional distributors pan India by 2017. Delhi based Advantage Computers (Adcom), a national distributor of the company, largely heads the distribution strategy of Zopo.
In an exclusive interaction with Channel Times, Sanjeev Bhatia, Chairman of Advantage Computers said, “We started our India operation with a sole focus on the online marketplace. But we do see a lot of opportunities in the offline space. There is a vast untouched upcountry market where brick and mortar holds a very strong position. Therefore, we are now focusing on hiring regional distributors and micro distributors pan India who have better connect with the resellers.”
“We currently have over 50 distributors in Maharashtra, of which around 30 distributors present in India. We aim to increase our distributor base to 200 by the next fiscal”, he added. The company currently has a presence in 75 cities, which, according to Bhatia will be expanded to over 100 cities by 2017.
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Zopo today announced the launch of the latest model– The Color ‘F2’ smartphone.
Priced at INR 10, 790, the Color ‘F2’ is equipped with the latest features introduced by ZOPO like –Multi-account Application, PiP video Integration (floating video), and Barcode & QR scanner. Measuring 153mm x 77.8mm x 8.5mm, it comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS, and 2300mAh Battery. The Color ‘F2’model is equipped with a 64-bit media tech Quad-core CPU and 2GB + 16GB Storage that is expandable by up to 64 GB, allowing users to store all their games, movies and music with ease. It is available in two colors – champagne gold and rose gold.
Commenting on the launch, Hau Bin Huang, Sales Director, Zopo Mobile said, “We are confident that the latest Color ‘F2’ smartphone will enable us to achieve maximum growth in Mumbai as well as other India cities, and enable Zopo to become a force to be reckoned with in the Indian smartphone ecosystem.”
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Like its Chinese counterparts, Zopo has also announced its ambitious plans of Make in India. The company has announced to invest about INR 100 crore in its local manufacturing unit which will be set up in Noida. The facility that aims to manufacture 2 million handsets a year, will be utilized to ship out finish products from India to the neighboring countries. Zoo currently manufactures some of products through a third party handset manufacturer in the country.
Despite calls for boycott of Chinese goods, the popularity of Chinese smartphones such as Vivo, Oppo, Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo, are on the rise in India. According to the research agency Counterpoint, India recorded about 35 million units of smartphone shipments in the July-September quarter this year, posting a 21 percent growth QoQ and 25 percent surge from the same quarter last year.
According to the report, these brands collectively had 32 percent of market share in the quarter, up from 27 percent in the last quarter. Chinese smartphone makers are very bullish on the Indian smartphone market and are heavily focusing on its distribution and marketing strategy to capture the larger market share in the country.