realme set to expand offline presence in TS
To increase mainline stores in the State by 25% by end of 2023 for increasing sales through stores
Sreehari, Product Manager, realme Global
Hyderabad: Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer realme on Wednesday announced the plan to boost offline sales of its range of smartphones. Hence, the company plans to expand its mainline store presence in Telangana by 25–30 per cent by the end of 2023. realme operates over 1,000 mainline stores across the State.
The smartphone maker said it sees 60 per cent of its sales through online platforms and 40 per cent from offline stores. With an eye on balancing this ratio and increasing sales from offline stores to 50 per cent, realme is on an expansion spree. “In a year or so, we are aiming to increase our sales, equally achieved from online and offline. In this regard, we will be expanding our distribution network to 50,000 from the current 30,000 across India by the end of 2023. In Telangana, we operate over 1,000 mainline stores and our aim is to expand this by 25–30 per cent. We also will be adding 12 new service centres in Telangana to the existing 15, and 200 across India to the present 527, by the end of this year,” Product Manager of realme Global, Sreehari said.
On a query about realme’s share in India’s smartphone market, Sreehari said that the total smartphone market is around 15–16 crore in volume. Of this, realme holds the fourth position with a share of 14 per cent in India and 12.5 per cent is its mainline market share in Telangana in 2022.
The company launched realme C55 smartphone in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Starting at a price of Rs 9,999, the 4G smartphone is a new addition to its C- series. Talking about the consumer’s buying trend, Sreehari said that a larger population of India living beyond metro cities are 4G network users with affordable smartphones. “5G network can be seen widely used in tier I cities. Whereas in tier II and the rest of India, smartphone consumers are still in the process of shifting from 3G to 4G. This transition phase is visible in the affordable smartphone category, which has a wider buyer base in our country,” he added.
