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Xiaomi to set up 5,000 stores in rural India by 2019-end

New Delhi: India's largest smartphone vendor Xiaomi said Tuesday it will set up 5,000 Mi Stores across rural India by the end of 2019, a move that is expected to generate over 15,000 jobs.

Xiaomi ventured into offline retail in 2017. It operates its own chain of Mi Homes, apart from Mi Preferred Partners through franchise model.

"It's been over a year since we started offering our products through offline retail and we have seen strong growth there ... About 4-5 months ago, we started piloting what we called Offline 2.0 - where we are going to tier IV, V and beyond, rural India with our offline retail offering," Xiaomi Vice-President and India Managing Director Manu Jain told reporters here. He added that under the 'Mi Store' model, the company has already set up 500 stores and will take the number to 5,000 by end of 2019. "Located across 14 states, these 500 Mi Stores were inaugurated at the same time on October 29 ... which helped us achieve a Guinness World Records feat for opening the highest number of retail stores in the world at the exact same time," he said.

While Mi Homes -- that showcases Xiaomi's entire product range across smartphones, televisions and ecosystem products — are spread across larger spaces in bigger cities, Mi Stores have an average size of 300 sq ft and will be located in rural India.

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