The Mi Authorized Reseller store in TriNoma, Quezon City, is not expansive with a floor area of 108 square meters. But in terms of merchandise, you’d be very surprised at what Xiaomi Philippines has to offer.
The range of products—from smartphones, laptops and mobile accessories, to umbrellas, shoes and luggage—is quite robust.
Xiaomi Philippines Brand Manager Joyce Borlagdan explained that Mi Authorized Reseller, which is owned and operated by Grimalkin Corp., is a lifestyle store and not just a retail space for gadgets.
“Xiaomi’s business model is to work with manufacturers of products of specific types. They utilize the techology of those products to make their own and sell these products at a lower cost,” she said.
For instance, Xiaomi sells a self-balancing scooter in China that was manufactured by a company that’s known for that product. The same is true for Xiaomi’s powerbanks and headphones.
When Xiaomi Philippines opened in TriNoma on February 17, I was astounded at the long lines of people wanting to get into the store. I learned that many of them started lining up at 5 am just to get first dibs on the products.
A Xiaomi representative from China was present during the event but he directed us to the local distributor for the interview.
“Xiaomi has an organic fan base in the Philippines. We just made an announcement on our Facebook page and people showed up,” Borlagdan said.
Mi Philippines had trucks on standby that day so that the store would be fully stocked no matter how much and how many people shopped. I saw pictures of the store at 10 pm and people were still shopping.
The Xiaomi Redmi 4A is the most affordable Android-powered smartphone at the store. The 2GB RAM + 16GB ROM version is priced at P4,795 and the one with 2GB RAM and a larger 32GB onboard storage is P5,350. Each handset has a 5-inch HD IPS display, 13 MP rear cam, 5MP front shooter, 3,120mAh battery pack and Quad Core 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor. The Redmi 4A has been described as an attractive option for an entry-level phone.
The most expensive phone at the Mi store right now is the Mi Mix, which is priced at P25,500. It has an edge-to-edge 6.4-inch Full HD AMOLED panel, a 16MP rear camera, 5MP selfie camera, Snapdragon 821 processor, 6GB RAM and 256GB storage. The phone has received good reviews for its design and performance.
Aside from the phones, we saw other interesting items inside the store. These include Mi Induction Heating Pressure Rice Cooker (P4,200), Mi Air Purifier 2 (P6,490), Mi Smart Scale (P995), MiJia Electric Scooter (P18,850), plus wearables such as the Mi Band 2 (P1,199).
For 2018, Xiaomi plans to open two more stores. The first one, said Borlagdan, will be the 200-square-meter flagship store in SM Megamall’s Cyberzone area. The target opening date is in March. The second one will possibly be in SM Mall of Asia.
“The goal is to have a Mi Philippines store in every city in Metro Manila but not every store has to be owned by Grimalkin Corp. We can actually franchise it,” Borlagdan added.
The Mi Authorized Reseller store is at the fifth floor of Trinoma, near Cinema 5.
1 comment
Good day sirs/Ma’am,
I am interested in franchising MI store or Kiosk in Dagupan City, Pangasinan..