OnePlus is working hard to improve its offline presence in India. The Chinese handset maker today announced its partnership with Reliance Digital, which is the country's fastest-growing consumer electronics chain to sell its smartphones. With this partnership, both OnePlus and Reliance Digital are creating more retail touch points for customers to experience and purchase OnePlus mobile phones across cities in India. Last year, OnePlus established a partnership with Croma to sell the OnePlus 5T and this year's OnePlus 6 was also made available across all the Croma stores in the country. The upcoming OnePlus 6T will be available at Reliance Digital Stores for purchase right after the launch.
OnePlus-Reliance Digital Partnership: Major Step to Boost Offline Presence
As mentioned above, OnePlus is striving hard to increase its offline presence in the country. The company is setting up OnePlus Experience Stores in various cities which will allow a customer to experience OnePlus smartphones in real and make a purchase decision at the store itself. With the entry of Reliance Digital as an offline channel partner, customers will now have extensive offline options to experience the OnePlus products at conveniently located stores at the same price as online. Reliance Digital also stated that it would run various promotional campaigns to let customers know about OnePlus smartphones.
Speaking at the occasion, Vikas Agarwal, General Manager, OnePlus India, said, “The premium smartphone segment in India is steadily growing, and OnePlus seeks to more effectively tap into this space, with a nifty strategy combining both online and offline platforms for a holistic reach. This partnership with Reliance Digital will equip OnePlus with a more robust physical presence, enabling the brand to cater to its increasing user base through multiple touchpoints across cities. The focus on curating only the best user experience by Reliance Digital resonates with that of OnePlus’ user philosophy.”
As a part of this association, OnePlus and Reliance Digital will set up exclusive experience zones with live demo phones on display and customers will also be able to interact with the stores’ well-trained staff about the device and address all product queries directly.
“The intensification of the brand’s offline strategy is only to complement the existing online business model and create offline touchpoints for users to physically engage with the brand, better understand the product and for the brand to gain better visibility and trust among our offline audiences,” Vikas further added.
OnePlus Leads the Premium Smartphone Category in India
According to a report by Counterpoint, OnePlus is now the largest premium smartphone maker in the country with over 40% market share. However, this report was of Q2 2018. Samsung is expected to gain back the crown from OnePlus in Q3 2018 as the Galaxy Note 9 garnered a lot of initial sales in the sub-continent.
But Q4 should belong to OnePlus as it discounted the OnePlus 6 heavily for the festive season and is all set to launch the OnePlus 6T in India on October 30 with the sales set to begin on November 2. Notably, the OnePlus 6T will be available for purchase via Amazon India, Croma and Reliance Digital stores in the country.
