Offline mobile retailers boycott Samsung products for 3 days over tie-up with Amazon

Although Samsung has verbally communicated that it has ended the tie-up, the mobile association will call off the protests after it is given in writing.
Offline mobile retailers boycott Samsung products for 3 days over tie-up with Amazon
Offline mobile retailers boycott Samsung products for 3 days over tie-up with Amazon
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Offline mobile phone retailers are boycotting Samsung products from Monday to Wednesday as a sign of protest against the smartphone maker's tie-up with Amazon. Retailers associated with the All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) will not be selling any Samsung products, and will also remove or cover Samsung’s branding in their stores.

According to AIMRA, Samsung has a tie-up with Amazon Pay, the e-commerce giant’s payment service, and AIMRA has been pushing for mobile brands to end exclusive partnerships with e-commerce players. AIMRA says that for Amazon Pay is offering a cashback on Samsung devices.

After AIMRA called for a boycott, Samsung verbally communicated to AIMRA that the offer is not being given anymore. However, AIMRA has said that the protest will continue till they receive a written communication from Samsung on the same.

According to AIMRA, while brands such as Xiaomi, Realme and Vivo have agreed to end exclusivity, there has been no response from Samsung on this front. 

Speaking to TNM, AIMRA president Arvinder Khurana said that exclusivity is hurting the business of the offline retailers because new models with better pricing, better offers and better specifications, along with lower prices are available only online.

“Flipkart and Amazon are trying to prove their facts to the government that the sale of handsets is being done by the offline retailer as Amazon sellers, and all the discounts which are given are being given by them. But the truth is that those discounts are given by sellers affiliated to these companies,” he says. 

Arvinder claims that Amazon will be burning money to offer that discount, but the payment and cashback will be on Amazon Pay, and the retailer has to register as an Amazon seller and this transaction has to be routed through Amazon. Amazon, he says, “only wants the business to happen on the platform which will increase their Gross Merchandise Volume. They will also have a point they can make to the government that they have registered all the sellers on their platform, and they are selling it,” he says. 

“Those customers will then spend that money only on Amazon, they can't spend that money offline. So that is an intake for Amazon. And what a retailer loses retailers is a total loses every premium customer he won’t get back,” Arvinder adds. 

Arvinder further says that offline retails create new customer databases, which Amazons wants to take away. 

It is in view of this that retailers are boycotting the sale of Samsung products for three days. Additionally, retailers will also be visiting distributor and brand offices to mark their protest. 

"This will weigh very heavily on Samsung as their revenues will take a hit of crores of rupees,” Faisal Kawoosa, Research Director at TechArc told the Economic Times. 

Samsung declined to comment to TNM.

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