Offline mobile retailers have accused Samsung of misusing their customer data and luring customers who buy at these stores to shop online instead. The All India Mobile Retailers of India (AIMRA) has written to Samsung India’s mobile business head Ken Kang, accusing the company of misusing data of retailers by sending direct messages and mails to all high-end customers who bought the S series or Note series phones from offline stores, to encourage them to shop on the Samsung.com portal. This, the letter claims, 'sidelines the retailer completely forever’.
AIMRA president Arvinder Khurana says that Samsung recently launched the Note20 mobile and gave Rs 10,000 gift vouchers to customers who bought from offline stores. However, those vouchers could only be redeemed at Samsung.com.
AIMRA has accused Samsung of using this as a strategy to divert customers of offline stores to its own online portal by pitching better deals and offers, terming the practice ‘unfair, unethical and an absolute breach of trust’.
“Furthermore, our pre-booked customers are receiving messages with better deals and discounts as an ‘only for you’ offer where they are being offered an extra benefit of Rs 2000 making it Rs 12,000 if they buy the pre-booked handset from Samsung.com. These customers are also being offered higher prices for their buyback, leaving no room for your mainline retailer to retain his customer,” Arvinder wrote in the letter, which was sent to Samsung India on Thursday evening.
Arvinder told TNM that while this has been happening for the past 2-3 years with Flipkart and Amazon, the company has started to divert customers more aggressively now to its own online store.
“We, mainline retailers, have invested a lot of money to make experience stores, have given space for marketing your brand, and have invested in live demos of your products for best consumer experience. However, in return you have taken away our customers to online platforms like Flipkart, Amazon and now to your own Samsung.com portal with exclusive products, price disparity and unavailability of products (tablets) in mainline which is not only unfair and unethical but also betrayal towards us,” he added in the letter.
By doing this, offline mobile retailers have accused Samsung of taking away their customers, snatching away the livelihood of mainline (offline) retailers and their families. It has demanded that Samsung refrain from sending emails and messages to the customers of offline retailers, failing which retailers will be forced to take a legal route.
This comes days after AIMRA wrote to all handset companies urging them to allow a level playing field by offering the same deals which e-commerce majors like Amazon and Flipkart get during the coming festive season.
Asserting that online sellers get a much better deal compared to brick and mortar shops during the festive time, AIMRA said that around 1.5 lakh small businesses would find it difficult to sustain if this practice continues even in this pandemic time.
"Deep discounts and predatory prices offered in Flipkart Big Billion Day and Amazon Great Indian Festival kill mainline business with the support of mobile companies. Retailers do not get such deals. This discriminatory approach ruins the Diwali of retailers," Arvinder told PTI.