Getty ImagesNEW DELHI: India’s smartphone shipments from the online channel reached its highest ever share of 43% during January-March quarter of 2019 but market leader Xiaomi saw an on-year decline in its market share for the channel where rivals like Samsung, Realme and Asus grew, Counterpoint Research said.
Online channel shipments grew 17% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019, driven by new launches, sales events and lucrative offers rolled out during the quarter while the smartphone shipments in the offline segment declined by 4% year-onyear, Counterpoint said in a report issued Monday.
Samsung adopted online flash sales strategy for the first time with Amazon on the Galaxy M10 and M20 models, increasing the brand’s share to 15% in the period, up 31% on year, in the ecommerce segment. The initial demand for M series was strong due to which Samsung’s online contribution within its portfolio reached its highest ever level, Counterpoint said.
The top five brands captured 85% of the total online market.
“Price cuts of popular devices and more launches drove online channel shipments to the highest ever level in Q12019. The high online channel share indicates that the new ecommerce policy has limited impact, and e-commerce giants have found a way to cope,” said Anshika Jain, research analyst at Counterpoint.
It added that brands took advantage of their strong online reach to get rid of their excess inventory, before the change in India’s ecommerce policy in February 2019. Along with this, offline channels were still holding inventory accumulated during the record festive season in the last quarter of 2018.
Online channel shipments grew 17% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019, driven by new launches, sales events and lucrative offers rolled out during the quarter while the smartphone shipments in the offline segment declined by 4% year-onyear, Counterpoint said in a report issued Monday.
Xiaomi led the online market with 43% share, which though came down from 57% for the same quarter last year. Flipkart led the overall online market with a 53% share while Amazon grew faster in the quarter 2019, with 38% yearly growth to touch a share of 36%.
Samsung adopted online flash sales strategy for the first time with Amazon on the Galaxy M10 and M20 models, increasing the brand’s share to 15% in the period, up 31% on year, in the ecommerce segment. The initial demand for M series was strong due to which Samsung’s online contribution within its portfolio reached its highest ever level, Counterpoint said.
The top five brands captured 85% of the total online market.
“Price cuts of popular devices and more launches drove online channel shipments to the highest ever level in Q12019. The high online channel share indicates that the new ecommerce policy has limited impact, and e-commerce giants have found a way to cope,” said Anshika Jain, research analyst at Counterpoint.
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It added that brands took advantage of their strong online reach to get rid of their excess inventory, before the change in India’s ecommerce policy in February 2019. Along with this, offline channels were still holding inventory accumulated during the record festive season in the last quarter of 2018.
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