Along with its online channel, Xiaomi opened two authorized Xiaomi Experience Store, called Mi Home, in Spain in November 11th 2017. It is the vendor’s latest move in its landing in Western Europe/Spain market that we blogged a week ago.
For Spain smartphone market, it makes sense for Xiaomi to expand into the offline channel at day one. The country is still an offline-centric market, so is Western Europe.
Xiaomi’s offline expansion in Spain also echoes well with its aggressive initiatives on channel development. Although online is part of Xiaomi’s gene, offline is getting increasingly important in the vendor’s overall channel strategy. Different from China, Xiaomi partnered with third-party players to establish offline brand stores in overseas market. The vendor disclosed its target to open 1000 third-party-run Xiaomi stores in its overseas market by the end of 2020.
Overall, Xiaomi’s overseas expansion has started to bear fruit. If the current momentum continues, it is likely that Xiaomi would catch or overtake OPPO to become the world’s fourth largest smartphone vendor in 2018.
