Motorola increases offline investment

Smartphone manufacturer Motorola is seeking to grow its offline presence by setting up 1,000 “Moto Hub” stores across the country.

Motorola re-entered India in February 2014, exclusively selling its devices online through Flipkart. Since then, the company has also started selling on other platforms and offline channels. It says a third of current revenue is through offline retail channels.

“We are hoping that with the opening of Moto Hubs, we will have a 50:50 share in online and offline sales,” said Sudhin Mathur, MD, Motorola Mobility India.

Motorola is following Xiaomi in growing its offline presence. Xiaomi has 30 “Mi Home” stores and plans to expand to 100 by the end of the year.

Smartphone manufacturers which initially launched devices exclusively online are increasingly looking at offline channels to maintain growth.

While smartphone sales in the country have continued growing, the share of online sales has stalled at 30 per cent.

Like Mi Home stores, which allows customers to experience and buy all Xiaomi India products under one roof, Moto Hubs will have the entire range of Motorola devices.

Of the 1,000 planned, 50 will be in Bengaluru, 50 each in Delhi and Mumbai, and 25 in Kolkata. Motorola says 225 Moto Hubs are already operational.