This is how Xiaomi will sell their products in the PH
Since you pretty much know what to expect from Chinese brand Xiaomi when it comes to doing business in different territories its in, as well as the devices it will offer in the PH, the question now is who will they partner with and what they’ll launch first? Well, Xiaomi has said that they will partner with none other than e-commerce site Lazada when they officially start selling their products. Speaking of products, the first smartphone that the company will launch will be their high-end Mi 3 smartphone, which we’ll be unboxing later on the site. If you don’t have a credit card, you won’t have to worry – it was one of the concerns raised in the brand’s Facebook page earlier, and it seems that the company has prepared for the millions of pinoys who don’t have a credit card and have enacted a payment scheme for them. What that scheme is, we’re not entirely sure as of yet.
As far as pricing is concerned, you can go ahead and take a calculator to Xiaomi’s Chinese pricing and convert it to pesos to get an idea of the pricing of their devices here. Hugo Barra, VP of Xiaomi Global told us that they will be shooting for a price that’s as close as possible to the prices they have in China for the products that they will offer here. During our talk with him we pointed out that PH taxes for electronics are pretty high for our side of the globe. He told us that while our taxes are a bit high, they’re still lower than the ones in China which gives us hope about their promise to keep the pricing the same with the one in the mainland. Obviously the prices won’t be exactly the same, but again it will be relatively close to the pricing in other markets.
So the big question is when? Hugo did not want to give out a timetable when they’ll start offering the phones, but he did say that it will in two weeks time more or less, depending on when the devices clear customs. He was really adamant about selling the products as soon as they clear customs, which we all know is fraught with unforeseen delays *cough*. He also states once the products are ready for sale, they will announce it through their Facebook page (so like them right away) prior to the sale, and will announce the exact date and time for the flash sales.