Apple Dials Paytm Mall To Revive iPhone Sales in India?

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has finally reached an agreement to include Paytm mall as one of its official online resellers. Thus, only Apple authorised sellers can now sell Apple products in the Paytm mall. This move comes after Apple had reached a similar agreement with both the premier e-commerce companies operating in India, Amazon and Flipkart, by November of last year. The addition of Paytm Mall completes the top 3 list.

The move by Apple leads us to thought whether it will iPhone maker to strengthen its crumbling market in India? Let us look at it in a little more detail.

Why Paytm Mall?

Paytm Mall has been the third in the top three e-commerce markets in the country, after Amazon and Flipkart. By branding official resellers to all three, Apple will be able to reach 95% of the people searching for a smartphone online in India. In addition to that, Paytm is known for the healthy discounts offered on listed products. Thus, the overall pricing of the products will improve.

One other reason for roping in all three is the percentage of the Apple products sold online. The contribution of online sales to the overall sales has gone down from 50-55% previously to 35-40% now. These online partnerships will be able to increase online sales, thus impacting overall sales figures in the process.

Apple’s Strategy for India

Apple’s sales in India this year has been quite a big matter of concern. Sales of the iPhone in India dropped 40% in Q1 2019 as compared to the sales during the same period in the previous year. Therefore, the hierarchy at Apple has been trying to mend the situation through various measures. Working with the online e-commerce industry of the country seems to be one of them. Through this, they will be able to regulate the sales of their products better as well as offer up healthy discounts on the hefty price tags on a more periodic basis, thus improving sales.

During May 2019, Tim Cook admitted that Apple was focusing on two things to improve the sales – manufacturing in India and opening company-owned Apple Stores. With a Wistron facility at Bengaluru acting as the official assembly plant for Apple and the first official retail store set to open in Mumbai, Cook and the hierarchy at Apple seem to be going at their goals pretty hard. With the inclusion of e-commerce companies in the fold, Apple’s products and their discounts will now be able to reach the customers that the brick-and-mortar stores can’t.

Not the first Apple discounts

These are not the first attempts by the Cupertino giant to salvage the sales of iPhone in India. In May of this year, Apple was offering discounts on its iPhone XR amounting up to Rs 17,900. The iPhone XR, originally priced at Rs 76,900, was available to buy at Rs 59,000. They were implementing the discount in the form of a credit card cashback campaign. With the market share of Apple in the $400-plus smartphone segment being 23% in 2018 and with it set to drop further in 2019, Apple is visibly trying its hardest to salvage as many sales in the country, as it can.

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