In a bid to expand its offline presence and engage with the customers, Chinese smartphone maker vivo plans to open 10 large experiential stores in the country by 2024, the company said on Thursday.
The announcement from vivo follows launch of its largest 7,000 sq ft flagship store in Ahmedabad, which is spread across three floors. With this new store, the smartphone brand now has four such large stores in cities such as Bengaluru and Coimbatore. The new flagship stores will showcase vivo product portfolio to consumers across categories so that they can experience the products. Further, the stores will have service centre as well as gaming zones for consumers to experience gaming in different modes on the devices.
The company will also organise monthly workshops on subjects such as smartphone photography.
“With consumer orientation as our key focus, we strive to create immersive and premium interactive experience at our exclusive stores for our consumers. Hence, our modern experiential flagship stores are designed in a way where consumers engage with the products in a meaningful way and get an integrated, hassle-free product experience under one roof,” said Geetaj Channana, head of corporate strategy at vivo India.
“We also plan to add more experiential stores in other Tier-1 cities as part of our long-term focus to offer immersive retail experience to our consumers,” Channana added. The company currently has a network of 650 exclusive stores.
Lately, brands such as Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, etc, are focussing on expanding their offline presence, which is key for companies amid the premiumisation trend. Analysts said before buying premium smartphones consumer want to feel and experience the products and for that offline presence is necessary. Industry estimates suggest that about 45% of India’s smartphones sales happen online, and that is what makes brick-and-mortar segment an opportunity to be tapped.
According to data from Counterpoint and Canalys, vivo has the second largest market share in the country at 17% as of June end. Samsung continued to be at top position for the third consecutive quarter with an 18% market share. According to IDC, vivo surpassed Samsung to grab the top position with a 16% market share.
“vivo maintained its second spot in the overall market and was the only brand among the top five to experience YoY growth. Strong offline presence, growth of sub-brand iQOO in online, and multiple launches across price tiers facilitated this growth,” said Shubham Singh, research analyst at Counterpoint. The smartphone brand shipped 6.4 million units of phones in the April-June quarter, a growth of 7% y-o-y, Canalys said.
