Panasonic, Lenovo’s retail bets in India

Two brands trying to get a bigger foothold in India’s smartphone market recently announced plans to expand their retail presence, strongly leaning on exclusive stores and e-commerce.

The Japanese Panasonic and Chinese Lenovo are both in the process of bolstering their retail strategies. While the new stores would help their wide-ranging product portfolio, their smartphone fortunes would be paramount.

Lenovo India is planning to triple its retail footprint. Run by franchisees, Lenovo has 400 stores which are branded as Lenovo stores, besides 3,500 outlets where its products are available. In the next three years, Lenovo will add to its branded stores – Lenovo Exclusive Stores (LES) and Lenovo Exclusive Store Lite (a smaller version for lower tier towns). While 30 percent would be LES, the rest would be the LES Lite model.