Smartphone brands' call to quick commerce companies puts off offline retailers

Offline retailers are up in arms over the move by smartphone brands to tie up with quick commerce platforms, including Zepto.

In a letter to Vivo India, a top retailers’ organization said on Feb 3 that such a move would fuel the grey market and undermine the stability of the retail network. Similar letters will soon be sent to top brands such as Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Samsung and OnePlus, said the All-India Mobile Retailers’ Association (AIMRA).

“Quick commerce does not add value to the brand; rather, it disrupts the well-established retail structure, fuels the grey market, and negatively impacts the credibility and trust that retailers have nurtured with customers over time,” said AIMRA, which represents 150,000 mobile phone retailers across India.


Vivo didn’t respond to ET’s emailed queries.

The latest salvo is yet another chapter in the ongoing smartphone brand versus offline retailers' dispute over parity with ecommerce players. Vivo has typically been an offline retail play, which has boosted it to becoming India's top ranked smartphone in 2024, and its move to online has irked brick and mortar stores, say industry experts.

Apple, which partnered with Blinkit, BigBasket and Zepto for its latest iPhone 16 launch in September 2024, saw 25% uptick in sales as compared to iPhone 15 with quick commerce platforms also getting into the act. India ordered Apple iPhones within 10 minutes on these apps while offline retailers waited for weeks to get their hands on the first units.

Xiaomi also followed suit with its Note 14 launch and Vivo with Y18i and Y28i devices.

“Mainline retailers were already bearing the brunt from Amazon and Flipkart doing differential pricing and eating up offline sales. With quick commerce now, our losses will further pile up because of brands' exclusivity or preferential supplies in coming days,” said Kailash Lakhyani, founder chairman, AIMRA.

These sales will ideally fall in the hands of grey market retailers and not real consumers. "Quick commerce companies have scaled up big time in India. They have investor backing and may list on public stock exchanges. Once they start differential pricing, the offline market will further suffer," he added.

This comes at a time when offline stores were regaining some value share in the smartphone market due to offline sales of premium brands during the festive season. During some quarters, offline sales crossed 61% share but overall in 2023 both offline and online sales remained an equal split.

According to Counterpoint Research, smartphone shipments in India grew 1 per cent year-on-year in 2024, reaching 153 million units.

Vivo led the country's smartphone market in volumes in the December quarter as well with its share increasing to 20% from 17% on-year. Xiaomi followed Vivo with 16% volume share, Samsung with 15% and Oppo with 14%.