Oppo will now be setting up its own single-brand retail stores in India
Oppo one of the popular Chinese smartphone brands had been seeking approval to set up its single-brand retail stores in India for quite some time. However, things have now gone in the company's favor as Oppo has just been granted approval by the Indian government to set up its own stores in India.
The government approved Oppo Mobiles India Pvt Ltd's request on Tuesday, a notice on the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion's foreign investment facilitation portal said. The single-brand retail trading for Oppo has been approved for an unspecified amount.
In any case, Oppo has become the first smartphone brand to acquire such clearance in the world's No. 2 smartphone market. Now, it looks like the company will be expanding its sales in the offline market with new stores that will be set up in the coming days pan India. Meanwhile, this could also be a positive sign for brands like Apple who has been aiming to set up its own stores in India as well. Xiaomi and Vivo could also get into the game.
Oppo, we are yet to see if the company will be able to abide by the local sourcing norm placed by the Indian government. While the government allows foreign firms to sell their products directly through the single-brand retail route in India, the companies need to source 30 percent of the products locally.
Last year though, the guidelines were partially relaxed to exempt foreign retailers for three years from the mandatory local sourcing. It was done to attract more investment. But again, Apple's request for a waiver of the norm was turned down by the government.
Oppo has an assembling unit in India but it doesn't locally source yet. According to Business Standard, Oppo is planning to increase the capacity of the assembly unit and also set up a mobile manufacturing unit while further aiming to sell made in India phones to other markets.
Oppo is popular for its selfie-centric smartphones and basically, enjoys 8 percent share in the Indian smartphone market. While the smartphone market in India is highly competitive, setting up of company-owned retail stores may prove to be vital for Chinese handset maker's future.
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