Huawei mulls ending Flipkart exclusivity for Honor phones

PANAJI: Chinese telecom firm Huawei is looking to start selling its Honor brand smartphones through traditional retail stores to extend its reach thereby ending the exclusive arrangement with Flipkart to sell their devices.

"We are seriously contemplating omnipresence sales channel strategy to expand our reach to customers. We get 75 per cent of our sales from top 35 cities. We have to make plan to reach them out as everyone doesn't buy online," Huawei Telecommunications India Director Sales P Sanjeev told PTI.

Huawei started selling Honor smartphones in India through Flipkart about a year ago.

The change in strategy is a part of Huawei's growth plan for 2016. Top management at Huawei headquarters wants to triple the sales of Honor smartphones in India to about 5 million but India team is yet to firm up the plan for actual target.

"Our headquarters wants us to triple sales in India to capture 10 per cent market share in the smartphone segment. We are working on our business plan and strategy to determine deliverables. It should be finalised by next month," Sanjeev said.

He added that Honor expects to sell 1.5-2 million units by the end of this year.

Huawei has restarted selling Huawei brand smartphones in India through retail stores.

Sanjeev said going forward, Huawei will launch only select devices so that it does not clash with Honor smartphones if they are sold offline.

As a part of growth strategy in India, Huawei has already assigned 10 per cent of its Indian research and development team to develop Honor product suitable for Indian market.

"Now we have completed about one year and understand our customer. We have a clear picture now, where is our buyer and for which product, which is going to make our business smooth. We listen to our customers through social media network, read feedbacks on Flipkart and grievances send out by them directly to us to improve upon," Sanjeev added.

He said that funds will not be an issue for its growth plan here.

Honor brand sells in India, China, Russia, Germany, Mexico, Japan and Dubai.

The company also has plans to expand its product portfolio in the country by launching 2-3 models more by the end of this year.