Motorola-Lenovo to expand retail store presence

NEW DELHI: The Motorola-Lenovo combine plans to strengthen its offline retail presence in a bid to increase foothold in what it expects to be a challenging Indian market over the next three years. The company, however, will take a call on expanding manufacturing once the new unified tax regime sets in.

Calling itself a challenger, the No 3 smartphone brand with 9.9% share as of December, will invest in setting up exclusive retail stores that will give hands on experience and sales for all phones, starting with pilots with large format retail stores such that half its sales comes from offline. Some new launches will include the Moto G5 and new Mods for the Moto Z.

“It’s going to be very challenging next three years, the top five brands will constitute 80% of the market, and they will be in the premium and sub premium segments and not so much in the bottom of the pyramid,” said Sudhin Mathur, newly-appointed managing director of Motorola India, who also heads the Lenovo phone business in India.

The company plans to strengthen its offline strategy with expansion, with about 25-100 exclusive stores over the next three years. However, it will begin with about five to six stores in the near term. Currently, two-thirds of its business comes from the online channel.

“Online market will only grow till the point where it is now, so next growth will come from offline... if half of the sales comes from offline in two years from now, would be great,” Mathur said.