The smartphone industry in India has taken a hit due to the nation wide lockdown that was introduced in the last week of March, and continues to this day. Xiaomi, the number 1 player in the market, is all set to make up for lost revenue, and has announced Mi Commerce to that end. With the help of this platform, users would be able to ‘show their interest’ for a certain Xiaomi device and avail it without every stepping out of their homes.

The platform, which has been launched exclusively in India as of yet, will allow users to get their hands on Xiaomi devices without putting their feet on the ground. Using your location, the service will provide you with a list of nearby Xiaomi stores, or stores that have a partnership with the company. From there, you can select a vendor that suits you, and browse from a plethora of Xiaomi brand devices.

On opening the platform, you will see a prompt that would ask for your permission to access your location.

On bestowing that access (which we feel you shouldn’t), you will see a list of stores that come into the fold of Xiaomi. From there, you can make your choice.

After selecting a store, you will be able to select a device and suggest that you are interested in it. The devices are arranged into multiple menus, including, “Smart Phone”, “Mi TV”, “Smart Home” and “Accessory”.

The store will get a notification that a certain device has piqued your interest, over which it will place a confirmation call to you. Then, you can agree to the purchase, and hand over the money over a completed delivery.

Xiaomi has also also launched a WhatsApp number +91 8861826286 with a similar idea, where you can get in touch with nearby stores by initiating a conversation.

Xiaomi was the only company that managed to survive the slowdown caused in the global smartphone market in Q1 2020. While the market as a whole fell by 13%, Xiaomi was able to maintain a positive growth rate, registering a 9% growth over Q4 2019. The top 3 companies in the segment, Samsung, Huawei and Apple, faced slowdowns of 17%, 17% and 8% respectively (with experts saying that Apple got off easy). This makes Xiaomi’s performance even more commendable.