Flipkart is the most dominant e-commerce platform for smartphone sales in India.
Flipkart is the most dominant e-commerce platform for smartphone sales in India, research firm Counterpoint said in its report for Q1 2018, which also showed that e-commerce channels recorded a 38 per cent share in smartphone sales during the period. While India’s online smartphone segment in India showed a 4 per cent year-on-year (YoY) rise, its YoY remained unchanged for Q1 2018.
Among major e-commerce players, Flipkart recorded a market share of 54 per cent in India during Q1 2018. Amazon registered a 30 per cent share, while Xiaomi’s Mi.com was placed third, with a market share of 14 per cent. Across online platforms, Xiaomi’s phones occupied a 57 per cent share of the smartphone market, followed by Samsung at 14 per cent, and Huawei’s sub-brand Honor, that registered an 8 per cent market share. Exclusive smartphones from Xiaomi and Huawei (Honor) majorly drove online shipments.
Counterpoint had recorded the launch of almost 30 exclusive smartphone models across online channels during Q1 2018. These were distinguished from previous launches through features like full-screen displays, high capacity batteries and AI-based features like face recognition and AI Beauty. The report also stated that entry-level and premium segments are the fastest growing categories in the online smartphone market. While entry-level shipments were led in Q1 2018 by Xiaomi, premium phone shipments were driven by OnePlus.
This Counterpoint report also shows that the top five smartphones in India during 2018’s first quarter contributed to nearly half the smartphone shipments recorded via online channels. Among those phones, Huawei’s Honor 9 Lite was the only model, while the others were Xiaomi phones. While the most popular phone was the Redmi 5A, the other popular phones were the Redmi Note 5, at second place, the Redmi 4 at third, and the Redmi Y1 at fifth.