Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has ended its exclusive partnership with Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart.
According to the company, it has partnered with online retailers Snapdeal and Amazon too to sell its devices. This means buyers can now buy Xiaomi products across country’s major online marketplaces: Snapdeal, Amazon and Flipkart. The company said that Mi Stores will go live on Snapdeal and Amazon starting today. Tony Navin, senior vice president, electronics and home, Snapdeal, said, “We are excited to partner with Xiaomi to launch its highly sought-after range of smartphones and accessories to our customers across the country. We believe that the extensive delivery network panning across Tier-2 and-3 cities and towns of India will be of great value to Xiaomi in reaching out to a segment of consumers seeking true value in their devices.”
People familiar with the talks say that Xiaomi is unhappy with Flipkart as sales have been sluggish in the recent past. Xiaomi commenced operations in India last July with Flipkart on board as its exclusive sales partner. But recently, Xiaomi started selling accessories through its own website and commenced retailing devices through The Mobile Store’s physical outlet in New Delhi.
The company entered India as an unknown brand but gained instant recognition on the back of its Mi 3 smartphone. Since then, the company has released Redmi 1S, Redmi Note 4G, Mi 4 and Redmi 2 smartphones, along with the MiPad tablet.Having become a relatively big player in the Indian smartphone market, Xiaomi probably feels that it can move forward without Flipkart’s help.
For Snapdeal, this will be a major coup as the company has lagged behind both Flipkart and Amazon India in bagging an exclusive partnership with a major brand. On the other hand, Flipkart enjoys exclusive partner status with several smartphone brands, like Motorola, Huawei (Honor series), Lenovo (Vibe range), etc. Amazon, too, is the exclusive seller of OnePlus One and Micromax Yu Yureka smartphones.
