Xiaomi has been closely listening to fan talks and feedbacks, and some of the recent service updates prove the same. During the past week, the company announced pre-orders of Redmi and Mi smartphones via offline store and sale channels. So, you can basically pre-order a Xiaomi device via Sangeetha, Poorvika, Lot Mobile and BigC stores.
Earlier today, Xiaomi has announced yet another facility to place pre-orders via its official online store Mi.com. With this strategy, Xiaomi is trying to meet the demands of their signature products for their customer base.
Xiaomi kicked off their online pre-order services with their immensely popular device the Redmi Note 4. It’s the fastest device to sell over one million devices in India, that’s within 45 days of launch. Redmi Note 4 were sold exclusively through Flipkart and Mi.com. But like in every flash sale the mobile went out of stock within few minutes. Owing to these many wannabe owners who couldn’t fulfil their wishes, left negative feedbacks for the company after every flash sale day. With this pre-order service, the mobile vendor intends to rectify this and aims to sell more than seven million units of the Redmi Note 4 in 2017 itself.
“Dear Mi Fans, Thank you for all your support for Mi.com! Over the past few years, we have been listening closely to your feedback, pushing ourselves to bring innovation to as many people as possible. Specifically, we want to make sure that you, our most loyal fans, can easily buy your favourite Mi products. Today we are proud to present a brand-new pre-order system on Mi.com,” says Xiaomi in a statement.
You can place pre-order for Redmi Note 4 on Mi.com every Friday at 12 PM. Only one device can be purchased per pre-order, and full payment needs to be done digitally. Digital payment option includes credit cards, debit cards, net banking and mobile wallets.
How to pre-order a Xiaomi device from Mi.com
- During every Friday at 12 PM head over to Mi.com (starting 31st March 2017). Sign up for and the login to your Mi account.
- Select the product you wish to purchase.
- Place your pre-order and fully pay for the order via any payment options. Do note that cash on delivery (COD) option is not available for pre-orders. You can prepare your order via credit, debit, Netbanking, online wallets etc.
- Pre-orders will be shipped within 5 days after payment.
- You can order only one device per pre-order. Also, you cannot change your delivery address once you have placed your order.
Xiaomi last week started the offline pre-order sales via Large Format Retailers. You can place pre-orders for mobile devices through these retail stores in a pre-defined time period. Later you can pick up the device from these stores. These retailers even offered online pre-orders through their own website, but with no guarantee of colour choice. Do note that, for pre-ordering at any offline stores, you need to pay a booking amount of Rs 1,000 up front. The rest of the amount can be paid while your picking up the device from these stores.
“We spent 2016 building strong operations in our offline distribution and paving the way to bring innovation in our offline model,” said Vipin Raina, head of offline sales, Xiaomi India. “We started this with our direct-to-retail model and with the introduction of pre-orders. Now we are extending our innovation to everyone,” he added.
Recently Chinese mobile brands have been shifting their focus from online space to offline market in India, aiming to grab a better market share. Some of the early birds like VIVO and OPPO have achieved noticeable success with this strategy. Xiaomi’s made offline appearance October last year with their offline-exclusive smartphone, Redmi 3s Plus. Similarly, OnePlus has launched experience stores for offline reach.
So what do you think about these recent game plans by popular Chinese brands? Let us know in the comments. Peace!