CMR (CyberMedia Research) today released its research survey findings from the CMR Retail Sentiment Index 2018. In this survey, the research firm captured the perspectives of traditional multi-brand smartphone retailers through a nationwide retailer survey across ten major Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, and Guwahati, among others. While the online market is significantly growing with every passing year, the importance of offline market should not be taken off because there is still a huge chunk of people looking to experience a smartphone before they purchase it. And notably many online-only brands opting to build their offline presence for further growth in the country.
And when it comes to offline market, the key differentiation point for a smartphone brand is the level of engagement and trust that it empowers its channel partners with. As per the CMR Survey findings, the three key parameters of most importance for channel partners, includes sell-out schemes, timely payout, and transparency in dealings.
The report added that Lava has been ranked first by retailers on trustworthiness as well as timely payouts, while stands on Samsung. Satya Mohanty, Head- User Research Practice at CMR added, “Despite the stiff competition from Chinese mobile handset brands, Lava has held its ground in offline retail channels, scoring exceptionally well, alongside Samsung. Our survey findings affirm that Lava has been ranked first by retailers on trustworthiness as well as timely payouts.”
“Brands such as Samsung and Lava have consistently focused on Offline as a key priority for them, with a long-term strategy, centred around trust, timely payouts and transparency in dealings,” added Satya.
Next to Samsung, Chinese brand Vivo stands third on the list, which is an expected thing because Vivo and Oppo are currently the aggressive players in the offline market these days. There's no mention of Xiaomi in the top three list, mostly because the company has just entered the offline market and has limited Mi Preferred partner stores.
