Realme eyes offline retail expansion in India; to open a flagship store in Gujarat 

More and more smartphone brands are expanding their retail footprint in India. On Tuesday, smartphone maker Realme said that it is investing heavily in its exclusive showrooms, as a brand, to enhance its tech lifestyle imagery to fuel technology adoption even in rural parts of the country, where real growth is happening.

The company is set to open its first flagship store in Gujarat that will be a grand 10,000 square feet of space.

"The store will showcase all of its products, including televisions, audio equipment, and wearables, in addition to smartphones. At this 360 TechLife flagship store, customers will be able to live a smart, connected life by using smart devices and gadgets," Madhav Sheth, VP, realme and CEO, realme India and Europe, told IANS.

Apart from the online segment where realme captured the third spot in India in 2020 with 19 per cent share, the company's mainline segment is also gradually growing.

"Since 2020, realme always makes sure that offline inventory in mainline stores is aligned with online channels during product launches," Sheth said.

"Mainline expansion is always significant to realme and we will be launching 300-500 realme smart stores nationwide and a few flagship stores, enabling more users to experience realme smartphones and AIoT products," he informed.

According to Counterpoint, realme remained the top smartphone brand on Flipkart in 2020, registering a growth of 27 per cent (on-year).

Sheth said that expanding deeper into Indian territories through mainline channels is critical to the growth as the leading tech-lifestyle brand.

"realme's mainline expansion is always important, so we're expanding our distribution channels in India, particularly in Tier 4 and Tier 5 cities, to include more mobile stores so that users can easily access realme products," he mentioned.

Instead of delivering high margins at the expense of product and user experience, said the company, the mainline approach would place a greater emphasis on relationship building and connections with more distributors and dealers around the country.

"Despite the fact that we are not as well-known in mainline markets, we believe realme has the best mainline channel relationships of any brand," Sheth said.

This year, realme will concentrate on 5G as a key growth driver.

"To achieve this, we will offer 5G-enabled smartphones at a lower price point, allowing users to experience the latest processor with vastly improved power management, display optimisation, camera support, gaming performance, and other features while also preparing consumers for the future of 5G," the realme executive elaborated.

*Edited from an IANS report