Xiaomi launches omnichannel solution to help its retail partners amidst coronavirus lockdown
Xiaomi India head also announced that the company has retained all its 50,000 employees and partners despite the impact of coronavirus on the business.
Xiaomi has launched an offline-to-online (O2O) solution Mi Commerce for its retail partners to help people buy Xiaomi products from their neighbourhood Mi shop without stepping out from their homes, announced Manu Jain, VP of Xiaomi, and Managing Director of Xiaomi India, in a virtual press conference.
Manu Jain, Managing Director and VP, Xiaomi India
The announcement comes on the back of restrictions easing under Lockdown 3.0 from May 4 to improve economical activities.
Muralikrishnan B, Chief Operating Officer, Xiaomi India added that Mi Commerce is a hyperlocal product discovery platform and it will be wrong to compare it with any other ecommerce platform. The company wanted to launch such a solution for a long time, but the lockdown fostered its development.
Muralikrishnan said that the platform has been developed in the lockdown period and it is Xiaomi's first step towards an omnichannel solution. At present, Xiaomi is rolling out a pilot in Kerala's, and will soon be expanded to government-identified 'green' and 'orange' zones.
With this solution, the last mile "contactless" delivery will be done by retailers and Xiaomi recommends that people make the payment through a UPI-based solution. Manu Jain added that Mi Commerce will help the company's 10,000 retail partners to resume business quickly.
"Due to COVID-19 restrictions, smartphone sales in Q2 will take a hit. But the India smartphone market will bounce back by Q3 and Q4," he added.
The Xiaomi India head also announced that the company has retained all its 50,000 employees and partners despite the impact of COVID-19. He also announced that some of the offline stores and service centres will be open in green and orange zones with specific and strict safety measures such as no walk-ins allowed, only three people at a time inside a store etc. Manu Jain also spoke about resuming the facilities upon government approvals.
The company in its virtual meeting also revealed that it will unveil its flagship 108 MP camera phone Mi 10 on May 8.
Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta