Chinese smartphone maker Vivo is looking at capturing a 10 percent market share in India by next year. It aims to increase its local manufacturing capability and will also start selling phones via e-commerce platforms according to a report in the Economic Times.
Vivo is planning to come up with an online strategy which will not conflict with its offline channels. The company plans to use its marketing budget of around Rs 300-400 crore for this.
Speaking to ET, Vivo’s India head Kent Cheng said that Vivo had a 2-3 percent share in January which is now increased to 5-6 percent by volume and 7 percent by value. “We have set internal target of 10 percent by next year, which may include some share from online sales,” said Cheng.
According to analysts, Vivo has good presence in the
offline channels with over 15,000 retailers across 400 cities – which is quite different from the online-only sales model that is practised by a lot of its Chinese competition. Vivo’s strategy of offering higher margins than other brands and reaching out to the Indian consumers through offline channels has worked in its favour.
Cheng said that Vivo has an extensive dealer network in China, a model which the company aims to replicate in India. Being the no. 3 smartphone seller in China with a 13.2 percent share as of June end, Vivo has sold around 14.7 million units in China. In India, Vivo crossed the 1 million mark by the quarter ended June, leading to a 200 percent growth according to Counterpoint Research.
Currently, Vivo has around 18 models selling in India across its X,V and Y series with price ranges going from Rs 7,500 to Rs 23,000. These phones are assembled in the Greater Noida assembling facility. This facility is reaching its capacity of 1 million units a month and hence Vivo is thinking of setting up another plant in the country or expanding the existing unit.
Cheng added that the company is exploring if it can offer different models at different prices for online and offline channels or keep the pricing same for similar models on both channels.
Vivo launched the Y55L at an event in Delhi yesterday for the Diwali season. Priced at Rs 11,980, the Y55L is a 4G VoLTE enabled smartphone with a 5.2-inch HD display, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with Funtouch OS 2.6 built on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS.