With a market share of 45%, online smartphones are gaining popularity in India

India's online smartphone market share reached an all-time high of 45% in 2020 , growing 7% year-on-year in the pandemic year , according to a new survey.

Flipkart remains the most popular online marketplace with 48% market share, followed by Amazon at 44%. Amazon is the fastest growing online marketplace with 34% year-on-year growth, according to Counterpoint Research .

Xiaomi remains the top online brand with a 40% market share. Samsung holds the second position in India's online smartphone market with a 19% market share , accounting for more than a third of Amazon's shipments.

Realme ranks third in the online business, also with a 19% market share. According to Counterpoint data, in 2020, Realme remained the number one smartphone brand on Flipkart, with a year-on-year growth of 27%.

In addition, Vivo ranked fourth with strong shipments of Y91i, Y20 and V20 series. OnePlus was the top online premium smartphone brand on Amazon and ranked fifth in the overall online smartphone market.

Most of the major brands have tied up with Amazon or Flipkart just to launch their smartphones online.

" Major online brands are adopting a hybrid channel strategy and expanding offline stores. In addition, as smartphone brands shift to a more ecosystem strategy and more devices, the focus will be on consumer experience, which will further boost the growth of the offline segment, " the report said.

According to the All India Mobile Retailers Association ( AIMRA), over 50,000 physical retail stores have closed in the last one and a half years , putting them in financial distress and displacing a large number of people . In terms of revenue, offline retailers’ sales have fallen by more than 50% in the last five years .

Vivo , Oppo and Realme had previously said they would stop online-only distribution in 2020. Sunil Baby, director of offline sales operations at Xiaomi India, previously told The Economic Times that the company charges the same for online and offline channels.

In 2019, the CCI in its report titled "India E-Commerce Market Study: Key Findings and Observations" asked e-commerce companies to pay close attention to issues such as discounts , data collection , use and sharing.

During this pandemic , as people followed government instructions on social distancing, there was a natural decline in physical shopping , which is one of the main reasons why India's online smartphone market reached an all-time high share of 45% in 2020.

India

Amazon

Smartphone

Online Shopping