Hong Kong based LeEco, formerly known as LeTV, is planning to open its offline retail stores in India. The company has filed an application with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for undertaking single brand retail trading of electronic products both through brick and mortar stores and e-commerce portal.
LeEco entered the India market early this year in January, introducing its Ecosystem model and launching its two smartphones – Le 1s and Le Max.
The company plans to open fully owned exclusive retail stores in top 8 to 10 cities, starting with New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, LeEco plans to display its entire Ecosystem ranging from phones, TVs, VR Headsets, Bluetooth devices and power banks. Additionally, the company also wants to open 500 franchise stores.
“India is a key market for LeEco and we plan to significantly invest in setting up our business model in the country. We are committed to offering our users cutting EDGE technology at disruptive prices. We have received a great response from consumers so far for our Superphones and now plan to strengthen our presence in the market by opening our own stores and e-commerce portal to offer our users the best-in-class experienceâ€, said Atul Jain, chief operating officer, Smart Electronics Business, LeEco India.
“We at LeEco are also aligned with the Government’s Make in India initiative and also plan to start manufacturing in India very soon”, he added.
Earlier this month, the company also announced setting up in-house Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) in 10 cities across India by end of 2016, with an investment of over 10 million USD to set up this CDN/cloud infrastructure. LeEco plans to replicate its ecosystem model of China in India. Also, LeEco had shared its plans to set-up our R&D centre in Bangalore with a staff of 1000 employees by the end of 2016.