Motorola has sold a whopping million plus smartphone handsets in the five months since it started selling in India again. And all of that through the one exclusive distribution network that it chose – India’s e-commerce poster boy Flipkart.
“We believe these sales figures should put Motorola among the top five mobile brands in the country,” said Sachin Bansal, founder and CEO of Flipkart.
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That could be true for the smartphone segment, where, according to research firm IDC, vendors shipped a total of 17.59 million smartphones in the first quarter of this year. top five mobile brands at the fifth spot had a 4% share or 7 lakh units.
The figures demonstrate how quickly the Indian consumer is adapting to the online market and letting go of traditional brick and mortar stores. It signifies how the Indian consumer has been able to get past the touch-and-feel barrier, and enjoying the speed and convenience of shopping from home or office or from one’s smartphone.
Equally, it is a story of how Motorola has scripted an impressive second innings in India, a market it once competed fiercely with Nokia for consumers.
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Magnus Ahlqvist, corporate VP, Emea & Apac, Motorola Mobility, who was in Bangalore, said the company’s performance was nothing but phenomenal. “It proves that the business model that we chose was a really strong one. I don’t think we have achieved anything similar elsewhere,” he said.
India was the first market where Motorola entered into an exclusive tie-up with an e-commerce player for the sales of its devices and took a decision to stay away from the offline retail market. Till date Motorola has launched three smartphones in India – Moto E, Moto G and Moto X, priced between Rs 7,000 and Rs 26,000.
Ahlqvist said that in the foreseeable future Motorola had no plans of taking the offline retail route and would continue to strengthen its partnership with Flipkart with more product launches. Moto E first made its debut in India before being rolled out internationally. Moto G was the first smartphone to be launched by the company in India in February and sold over 20,000 units in 15 minutes.
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Flipkart’s Bansal said that Motorola’s sales story was what Binny (the other Flipkart co-founder) and he were working towards six years ago. “Only by selling online and only by selling with one player, a player like Motorola is able to become one of the top five mobile brands in the country,” said Bansal. And added, “Five years ago this would have been science fiction. Today it’s a reality and we believe that’s a trend that would continue for a long time.”
Terming it as the coming of age of the Indian e-commerce industry, serial entrepreneur and investor K Ganesh said that exclusive partnerships with online e-commerce players would be the future of how distribution is carried out in India. “In the absence of e-commerce, how many distribution channels and retailers Motorola would have had to reach out to to sell 1-million units! On the other hand, the cost savings through e-commerce, which reaches the length and breadth of the country, are immense,” said Ganesh.
Others are now trying similar initiatives. Budget-handset maker Celkon Impex recently launched its Campus A35K smartphone in India in an exclusive partnership with online marketplace Snapdeal.com. Snapdeal.com also has an exclusive partnership with Vishal Gondal’s GOQii to launch its fitness device GOQii Life in India.
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source: TOI
