Samsung India stops selling mobile phones online!

[sudipt123]

The problem is the franchisees have invested a lot in Samsung brand Mobile stores ( Samsung Smart Cafe, etc)- who are only allowed to sell their products. hence online selling is a competition to these stores as well- and they need to recover their investment ( as they are not sponsored by VC's ) LOL

 

[kanagadeepan]

Good for Samsung dealers
Neutral for us
Bad for Samsung

 

[ghpk]

those who have invested Lakhs (few even crores) of rupees in opening a Brick and Mortar Store for such brands will certainly
beat the hell of that brand cause :-

Their initial cost to start a store is HIGH
They maintain a hell lot of inventory which is billed first, provisioned later
They have showroom running cost like Electricity, cooling, staff, etc etc
and their profit margin is now slim as death due to online stores.

while on other hand selling online is cheaper for sellers.

Setting up a Store is just a few click away
Inventory need not include entire range, you bulk buy only items you can sell as hot cackes.
and most importantly, online marketplaces like "shopclues", flipkart, snapdeal would offer the prospect
buyers discounts, commission and all are from VC's money or from their portal's revenue which would
enable the seller to sell even below his "landing cost" still yield profit from that loss making sale.

In simpler words,
Take me as a new online seller, and Say a mobile costs me Rs.5000/- I am willing to sell on online portal
and fix a pricing of Rs.5400/- which includes Rs.50/60 as shipping cost as this is the first slot and all portals offer
similar pricing for items upto 500gms, so If sale is made, after paying off everything I still get Rs.290/-
How
(Cost Rs.5000 + Shipping Rs.60 + selling fee +50) Rs.5110

Now in most cases selling portal would offer 6 to 10% off to customer
so even if the phone sold for Rs.4960/- I am still getting paid Rs.200 - 290 for above product cause
that portal is compensating me for discount offered by them, which is from their total revenue.

And the poor shop keeper will have to work his heart off to sell it even at Rs.5300/- which is not possible
as his landing and operating cost is way too high and there's no one to cover up his cost.

Recently a friend who happens to be a marketing senior says,
"vaat lagi hai bhai, my dealers are not buying from us" they are ordering online in fake names
and then selling it on huge profit over the counter.
What we bill them for Rs.6450/- is available to them at Rs.6300 ish online,
and dealers are even ready to kick us physically if we object.
he says I am thinking of switching to some other job, cause company will not let us live with this going on
right under our nose.
and apart from above they are also selling many products online now so the dealer has no regrets if we kick him off our brand.

so my conclusion is, no matter what Samsung is going to do, they cannot kill online sale in all.
infact Online sale makes a brand popular, and I would consider even online sale helps generates those offline over the counter sale
as words of mouth, and with at ease of home shopping experience and V.I.P. delivery standards have already set high hopes and standards for such online portals which cannot be and should not be killed.

All I can say for samsung, have better control between online and offline retailers rather than killing one of them altogether .

 

[Sushubh]

Right. Samsung could have focused on offering a better user experience at retail stores. I have not visited on in a long time so I have no idea how courteous folks are at these dedicated stores. Do they help you in setting up your phone and transfering data from your older device and stuff like that?

 

[ghpk]

I would not fall for "courteous folks" on local store if I get the same product Rs.600-Rs.1000 cheaper online.
and if you are rich and that amount doesn't rings you a bell, go ahead bang your head on that showroom, but If I had that kind
of extra money I would give some food to a hungry poor to eat, or buy medicine to a very needy child, sorry to say my current financial condition limits me from such acts.

Still Another cause to promote online sales, "Buy Online and Feed the Poors" so online shopping gives you best of pricing and Karma in one shot :clap:

 

[Sushubh]

Think of uncles and aunts who do not have the technical expertise to transfer their data from their older device to the new one. This is exactly the kind of service you get even at Apple Reseller Stores here in India.

 

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[kattuviriyan]

Indian online stores are the good source of reviews of the 'degraded models' with the same name as US versions sold in India. Look at Galaxy S5/Note 3 reviews in Flipkart.
Even if someone not willing to buy online will be looking at these reviews as they show up first (mostly via ads)

There will less negative reviews.

 

[sudipt123]

Talking about experiences, some years back had accompanied my mom to the Nokia priority store, phone was sold at mrp rate, however they transferred the data and settings from the old phone using nokia PC suite and set it up. I remember the old phone just had IR connectivity, no Bluetooth either! Great experience. Alas now Nokia priority is defunct!
And FYI - she has both the Nokia phones working, but uses a Samsung s3 now[emoji13]

 

[ghpk]

May be I've never experienced such V.I.P. treatments till date, or since I become online freak.

But HTC Store gave my father a very bitter experience in DELHI.
He bought phone on whatever price it was, i think MRP or so.

he was new to android, phonebook transfer was not done.
He used to take classes from me on phone and every night he asked more about it, normally 1 hour every weekday.

But later he become too friendly with phone and jumbled up some settings, sent the phone thru his PA to Store
they RESET and sent back, WTF, his phone-garten time reset

Few weeks later similar issue, phone sent, RESET

Few weeks later similar issue, phone sent, RESET

Later I begged him to stop sending phone to store.

Only Good thing was once Motherboard went dead and HTC replaced it within 1 working day.

 

[hitech0101]

The only smartphone brand that has managed to remain relevant is Apple. Samsung is slowly going through the same phase that Nokia went. You just need to keep reinventing yourself to stay relevant just look at how moto is back with a bang. I expect samsung not to fall like blackberry or nokia.