Online Smartphone Sales Share Reaches All-time High

The channel shipments share jumped to 43% in India in Q1 2019, says a study

Smartphone shipments from the online channel reached its highest ever share of 43 percent during Q1 2019, according to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service. Online channel shipments grew 17 percent year-on-year (YoY) in Q1 2019 driven by new launches, sales events and lucrative offers rolled out during the quarter.

Commenting on the findings, Anshika Jain, Research Analyst, Counterpoint, stated, “Price cuts of popular devices and more launches drove online channel shipments to the highest ever level In Q1 2019. Xiaomi’s Redmi 6A, and Note 6 and 7 series, Samsung’s online exclusive M series, Realme 3, Honor 10 Lite and Asus Zenfone Max Pro series were the major contributors for the growth of the online segment. The high online channel share indicates that the new e-commerce policy has limited impact, and e-commerce giants have found a way to cope.”

Brands took advantage of their strong online reach to get rid of their excess inventory, before the change in India’s e-commerce policy in February 2019.

Along with this, offline channels were still holding inventory accumulated during the record festive season in the last quarter of 2018.