India’s largest technology retail chain Reliance Digital said it signed an agreement to sell all Motorola products at its outlets.
At present, Motorola is largely an online-focused brand.
Motorola, which used to be a big brand in the country in the 1990s and 2000s, lost out to Korean players like Samsung and LG about 10-12 years ago, and was virtually wiped out from Indian store shelves soon after.
The company made a comeback in early 2014 through a unique, low-cost, online-only model in tie-up with online retailer Flipkart. The strategy paid off, and the brand was again among the top selling smartphone labels in India.
However, global troubles overtook the company’s operations in India, and the devices unit was sold to China-based Lenovo, which too had developed a strong online-focused retail operations in India.
Reliance Retail said it would make available “the entire portfolio of Motorola devices including the online exclusive devices” at select stores.
These devices would be housed in special Moto Hub zones at Reliance Digital and Reliance Jio stores.
Motorola plans to open multiple moto hubs in Reliance Digital and My Jio stores pan India covering key locations such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.
The first Moto Hub was inaugurated today at R-City – Ghatkopar, Mumbai.
“When it comes to shopping for electronics, we know the importance of touch, feel & try, it’s only then that our customers can know of the superlative tangible features of the product so that an informed decision can be made,” said Kaushal Nevrekar, chief marketing officer at Reliance Digital.
The latest move to tie-up with Reliance Retail seems to be part of an attempt by Lenovo to move away from the cut-throat and commoditized online retail market to one where margins are still comfortable.
The strategy is also likely to play with Lenovo’s attempts to position Moto as a brand of premium devices, with the Lenovo brand catering to the value-conscious customers.