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South Korean brand Samsung is taking on the competition head-on.
On Tuesday, the consumer product brand announced the opening of its premium store, Samsung BKC, in Mumbai, just 2 kilometres away from Apple BKC (Bandra Kurla Complex), the first store opened by the smartphone giant in 2023.
Samsung BKC aims to cater to ultra-premium buyers in India. The store is located at Jio World Plaza, the high-end luxury mall from Reliance.
This is Samsung’s first foray into the online-to-offline category. This move comes in addition to the company’s recent announcement of setting up 13 premium experience stores in India.
Spread across 8,000 square feet in Jio World Plaza, Samsung BKC will showcase Samsung’s top-of-the-line premium products.
This new store features Samsung’s widest premium portfolio, ranging from smartphones to televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, and other products.
J B Park, president and chief executive officer of Samsung Southwest Asia, mentioned that the company has created a “playground to bring artificial intelligence (AI) experiences to one place”.
Park inaugurated the store.
Samsung BKC offers the brand’s latest AI experiences — from ‘AI for All’ for consumer electronics products to ‘Galaxy AI’ for mobile devices — all under one roof.
Park stated that Samsung BKC is a big milestone for the company, which has been in India for over 20 years.
“Today, Samsung India is one of the biggest consumer electronics companies with $10 billion in revenue. Almost every Indian home has a Samsung product,” he said during the opening of the Samsung BKC store.
Park also added that over the past two decades, the company has invested in the country’s manufacturing capability and has two units, one each in Noida and Chennai.
“India is one of the biggest innovation hubs for the company. Annually, the company invests $10 billion in research and development. Our latest offering in smartphones, the S24, will be manufactured at our Noida plant,” he added.
Samsung BKC store extends the convenience of online shopping by offering a selection of products with over 1,200 choices from an online digital catalogue while also assisting in-store staff. Moreover, these products can be delivered not just in Mumbai but anywhere in the country. The store also provides a two-hour pick-up facility, allowing customers to buy a product online and pick it up from the store within two hours.
When asked about the need for an ultra-premium outlet when the company was already setting up 13 premium stores, Sumit Walia, senior director of direct-to-consumer business at Samsung India, explained that this store allows the company to cater to a different set of consumers.
“We are a full-range player serving different sets of consumers and trying to meet different sets of expectations. This store is part of our journey in understanding retail and what retail consumers want,” he said.
Walia highlighted that almost 60-65 per cent of its users are opting for premium products.
“That is one of the reasons why we decided to come up with 13 premium stores. In addition to that, we also observed that there are ultra-premium consumers, and their expectations are different. They want a fully connected experience, and they want to see it first-hand in a retail store, bridging the gap between offline and online experiences. Samsung BKC is that store,” said Walia to Business Standard.
Of the 13 stores announced by Samsung last year, 10 have already gone live, and by the end of the first week of February, all the stores will be operational.
The store is divided into eight lifestyle zones that showcase to customers how Samsung products, individually and as part of Samsung’s connected multi-device ecosystem (SmartThings), can offer convenience to them. These zones cater to different passion points, ranging from gaming and entertainment to art and yoga to cooking and laundry management.
