Flipkart is further strengthening its already strong position in the mobile phones category by entering into an exclusive arrangement with ASUS, the manufacturer of phones and other electronic devices from Taiwan. Under this agreement, ASUS will make phones, which will be made available only via Flipkart, including its offline stores if and when commissioned.
ZenFone is the brand that ASUS phones are known by and the models to sold for the Indian market through Flipkart will be designed with a focus on what the Indian customer wants. For this, the data that Flipkart has already collected will be worked upon and the insights taken from there.
The devices as such will be customized for the Indian market. The first device to hit the market under this exclusive arrangement will the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro. The phone can be bought from April 23 on Flipkart and it sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC.
Flipkart’s ASUS move has to be seen in the backdrop of its track record in selling smartphones on its platform clocking a 60% growth annually and according to Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamoorthy, Flipkart has cornered around 25% of all smartphones sold in the country.
The strategies worked out therefore include adding the offline channels, innovating and customizing and selling what the customer wants and to achieve all these, bring in an exclusive manufacturer-partner. This is precisely what Flipkart is doing now. In the next couple of years, the online retail giant plans to reach the figure of 320 million smartphones being sold on its platform and that may 40% of the market, up from 25% now.
Flipkart also believes besides mobile phones, fashion is the other segment that is contributing to its business. Together, these 2 categories add up to 55% of the sales in revenue terms and the absolute figure will be around $280 to $33 billion out of the total $50-$60 billion revenue the company records.
Flipkart has also had a few attempts at selling exclusively developed smartphones coinciding with some of the special sales campaigns it runs. A phone Billion Capture+ completely designed and assembled in India sold the entire lot within 24 hours. With an estimate that the figure for internet users in India expected to touch 500 million within the next couple of months, Flipkart’s ASUS move might just pay off.