Signalling a shift from an online-focused strategy to offline sales, Xiaomi Inc announced that it aims to sell double the number of handsets offline in China this year than analysts estimated it sold offline in the last year.
The online-driven sales model propelled Beijing-based Xiaomi to second among Chinese smartphone vendors in 2015, just three years after releasing its first handset and five years after inception, showed data from researcher TrendForce.
China's smartphone market witnessed Xiaomi make the most of its sales by ramping up sales through retailers and raise its number of "Mi Home" stores to 50 from 20 stated a source.
This year, the company aims to sell 58 million smartphones in China alone through retailers including Suning Commerce Group Co Ltd, GOME Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd.
Xiaomi is China's most valuable technology startup with an estimated worth of USD 45 billion. But missing the tail end of its 80 million to 100 million handset sales target last year has cast doubt on that valuation, analysts said.
