KOLKATA: China’s Xiaomi is going to enter the white goods space next year making the country’s largest smartphone maker a full-fledged consumer electronics firm in India, four senior industry executives said.
Xiaomi officials are currently identifying potential categories including air-conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, laptops and small appliances like vacuum cleaners and water purifiers for the Indian market. All the products will be smart appliances based on Internet of Things (IoT) or which can connect to the internet and other devices, and operated remotely, the executives said.
The appliances foray is to open up newer avenues of growth in the Indian market where it is growing over 100% year-on-year. Xiaomi also intends to expand its smart television line-up next year in the country by both refreshing the portfolio and expanding the range.
“The appliances which Xiaomi will launch in India will all have internet connectivity,” said an industry executive. “They would be launched online first, then in exclusive brand stores. Xiaomi also plans to make them available to large electronic and mobile phone retailers,” he said.
Xiaomi also has plans to enter 500 new towns in the country next year to expand its presence in offline stores with its range of smartphones and eventually televisions and appliances. The company at present focuses on top 50 markets in the country for its offline presence, the executives said.
An email sent to Xiaomi did not elicit any response till Thursday press time. Xiaomi entered the Indian television market in February this year with products 30-50% cheaper than the top three brands — Samsung, LG and Sony. It eventually expanded TV sales to offline stores and started assembling them in India in partnership with contract manufacturer Dixon. It recently announced having shipped more than a million televisions into the Indian market.
“The company will follow the same model for appliances. The products will be priced aggressively in line with its announced strategy of keeping just 5% profit margin for itself and start local assembly after gaining some scale to take advantage of Make in India duty benefits,” another executive said. Xiaomi India sales touched Rs 22,947 crore in 2017-18, growing 175% from Rs 8,334 crore in the previous fiscal.
The development was reported by ETRetail.com