Xiaomi offers smartphone exchange programme: Should we count on it?
In a bid to solidify its position in the Indian market, Chinese smartphone major Xiaomi on Wednesday (November 22) announced a new Mi Exchange programme in the country. Run in partnership with Cashify, the programme promises to make the process of buying a Xiaomi phone even more affordable by allowing buyers to exchange their used devices of certain listed brands for a new smartphone at the company's Mi Home stores across Delhi/NCR, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Chennai.
For a smartphone maker that has, over the years, tasted great success by partnering with e-commerce platforms and carrying out flash sales, this move bears more significance as it will give a strong push to increasing its sales through offline channels.
Announcing #MiExchange! Now exchange your old phone at best prices instantly for a brand new Xiaomi smartphone at a Mi Home near you! ???? pic.twitter.com/4jWbbPPZ8x
— Mi India (@XiaomiIndia) November 21, 2017
How does the programme work?
The exchange programme works like other exchange promotions that are regularly seen at offline stores of brands like Samsung and Apple. In a post on its official forum, the company explains how it works.
"What you need to do is simply bring your old smartphone to a nearest Mi Home. Depending on your phone's condition, Cashify team will propose a suitable price for your device. You will get the returns based on the market conditions and you can use the same amount to get a discount for new Xiaomi smartphone."
What's more is that you don't even need to have the old phone handy at the time of the exchange. Users can avail Cashify's pickup facility under which they can buy the new smartphone at the Mi Store, and get their old phone exchanged at a later time. However, under this facility, the buyer will have to pay the full amount of the phone upfront and only receive the exchange the amount for the old device when they hand it over to the Cashify executive at the time of return.
Another point to note is that only one phone can be exchanged for a new phone at a time.
As Xiaomi explains, the exchange value is decided purely on the condition of the old phone. At the store, this value is calculated by the store executives using Cashify's phone based application. Since the Cashify is available on the Android platform and has a website that can be used to check the price of an old gadget, users can also check the exchange value before going to the store.
Overall, the Cashify portal does offer good value for exchanged phones. For example, a one-year-old Redmi Note 3 can fetch more than Rs 4,000 in exchange. The case is similar for other phones.
Tapping the offline market
The smartphone major has set lofty goals for itself and is looking at ways to swell its revenues to more than $2 billion – more than Rs 12,800 crore. To achieve this, Xiaomi – the newly recently crowned the joint leader of the smartphone market in the country – has been increasingly looking at expanding its presence in tier II and tier III cities.
This exchange programme will not only give its offline expansion a major push, but also turn out to be a move that helps it realise the company's larger goal of consolidating its position as a market leader in the country.