Chinese smartphone maker, Xiaomi, is reportedly on the verge of ending their partnership with online retailer Flipkart.
A report by NDTV Gadgets, suggests that the Xiaomi is unhappy over the recent sales held at Flipkart.
Xiaomi took its first steps in India with the launch of the Xiaomi Mi 3, in July 2014, and has sold several products such as Power Banks, Headphones, and other accessories on Flipkart.
However, the online retailer is an exclusive partner for many of Xiaomi’s rivals, and promotes and sells the smartphones from Motorola, Google Nexus, Lenovo to name a few. Flipkart is also one of the exclusive retailers for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, the other being Amazon India.
Xiaomi feeling the heat from the other brands, decided to hold more open sales at Flipkart. Even that doesn’t seemed to have helped its numbers. We also have to take into account the OnePlus One, which is exclusively sold on Amazon, as it is the biggest rival of Xiaomi’s flagship phone, the Mi4.
The report says that since Xiaomi has managed to establish a firm foothold in the Country, it has not done well in its bid to setup a thriving offline business, despite partnering with The Mobile Store, and Airtel Stores.
So it is looking to switch over to Snapdeal, another online retailer. This could benefit both parties greatly, as Snapdeal does not have any top brand exclusive smartphones in its portfolio. So, Xiaomi could use the breathing space, and perform much better than it did at Flipkart. And in turn, Snapdeal could get thousands of Xiaomi customers shopping at their website.
There is no official word on this story from any of the involved parties yet.
