Xiaomi ends exclusivity with Flipkart; to sell devices on Amazon and Snapdeal

BY Killian Bell

Published 7 Apr 2015

Xiaomi Redmi 2A

Xiaomi has today confirmed plans to sell its popular smartphones through Amazon and Snapdeal in India, breaking an exclusive partnership with Flipkart that the Chinese company entered into last July.

Xioami has already been successful in India, with more than 1 million smartphones sold there last year. As of Q4 2014, it was the fifth-largest smartphone vendor, with a 4 percent market share. But the company hopes to do even better by making its devices more accessible.

Xiaomi has been making new retail partnerships for months to expand its reach in India, entering into a deal with Airtel to make the Redmi Note 4G available through Airtel stores, and reaching an agreement with The Mobile Store to sell devices through them offline.

Xioami also sells devices directly through its own online store, while unboxed and refurbished smartphones are offered through Overcart. And now the company is partnering with Amazon and Snapdeal, too, which makes its devices available across the three major e-commerce platforms in India.

It’s unclear how sales through these platforms will be handled at the moment, however; through Flipkart, Xioami has been using “flash sales” to offer devices for a short period of time every so often. Perhaps its new deals signal the end of that model. We’ll have to wait and see.

[via BGR]