Online smartphone sales in India grow 26% in Q2 of 2019

New Delhi: While the offline smartphone sales declined four per cent in India, the online off-take grew 26 per cent year-on-year during the second quarter of 2019, according to a report on Friday.

Xiaomi alone captured around 46 per cent of the online market in Q2 of 2019, according to the latest research from Counterpoint's Market Monitor service. Redmi Note 7 Pro series, Redmi 6A, Redmi Note 6 Pro and Redmi Go contributed more than two-thirds of Xiaomi's total online sales.

New launches and multiple summer sale events also drove the growth during the quarter.

"The growth of Xiaomi and Realme and the focus of Samsung on online channels, with its Galaxy M-series, drove the shipments in the online segment," said Anshika Jain, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research.

The success of these three brands also meant that the Rs 15,000-20,000 price band was the fastest-growing in the online segment. Xiaomi Note 7 Pro was the best performing model in this price band, followed by the Realme 3 Pro," Jain said.

Realme became the second-largest player in the online segment, driven by a strong online push and good performance of its affordable series -- Realme C2, Realme 3, and Realme 3 Pro.

"The top five brands accounted for 84 per cent of the online market. Brands and even channels are now diversifying their channel/platform strategy to increase their reach. For example, Amazon recently infused $404 million in its India business and is also investing heavily in Future Retail Group to strengthen its offline footprint in the Indian market," said Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint.

Samsung was the third-largest player in the online segment. The M-series contributed to more than 50 per cent of its online volume.

Realme, Asus, Vivo, and OPPO were the fastest growing brands in the online segment, according to the report.