“A place for fans to meet each other and hang out,” is how Hugo Barra describes Xiaomi’s Mi Home venture.
You probably weren’t aware, but Xiaomi has a total of 19 of these Mi Homes in mainland China. These are places where ‘fans’ of the company are supposed to meet each other, and play with new Xiaomi products.
As you would’ve expected, Mi Home isn’t a place where you can barge in and buy yourself a phone. We’re talking about Xiaomi, after all. Xiaomi is a company which believes in maintaining a supply that is at all times short of the demand — a strategy that seems to work pretty well (at least for Xiaomi), despite the flak that they often get for that.
Gizchina News of the week
Coming back to Mi Home now. Xiaomi is all set to set up one of these in Hong Kong, which will mark the first Mi Home for outside of the Chinese mainland.
Purchasing a Xiaomi device can be bit of a gamble for some, because the devices are online-only and might not be to the taste of some. Which is why, the idea of Mi Homes sounds like a hit… at least for now. Xiaomi is clearly feeling at ease in its comfort zone now. But I’m sure as many of you would be, that there’s many more Mi Homes to come in other Xiaomi markets in the coming months.
Picture for representational purposes.
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Great idea …
The space is donated or what? Otherwise it seems totally f’ed up why you would rent space and hire staff but not sell product, even if just accessories to at least get the locations or “homes” to generate some revenue to pay the bills.
I think by showing of their products ‘in the flesh’ they hope for people to go straight out and buy one because it’s super awesome in the hand..?
It’s not the first time I have seen this sort of thing, I see companies all the time set up a booth or even a store front that only demo’s their products and doesn’t sell anything. It happens a lot with home building products, for instance you can check out their windows or siding but you can’t purchase anything. You have to deal with a salesman who comes to your home or order online.
Having said that I love this idea, a place where I could go test out the newest Xiaomi device before buying it. I am the type that loves to go play with a piece of tech in a place like Best Buy (when I am in the USA) or Powerbuy (when I am in Thailand) then go buy it online at a cheaper price. Plus its always fun to meet other enthusiasts. Andy should set up a Gizchina Home where we can all meet and argue in real life over a cup of coffee and scones.
Space isn’t cheap especially HK so I’m guessing they’re betting a lot on people following-thru and going online to mi.com to buy, hopefully not greeted by a “Next sale…” or “Sale starts…” or “Reserve now…” message otherwise it will be a lost cause as today’s consumers have less patience than ever. They also need to hope counterfeits/fakes/clones aren’t being sold near these homes otherwise they might end up fuelling these sales instead.
I still think they’re missing an opportunity to sell something (anything really); I know Xiaomi is logistically challenged so phones are out of the question, but I think they could sell accessories at these “homes” or at the very least, t-shirts. It was just a couple weeks back they were whining about counterfeit powerbanks and this is a perfect opportunity for them to get theirs out there (or not).
I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually they do start selling hats, tshirts, coffee mugs etc etc. Today consumers have less patience than ever but they are also more brand conscious than ever, which means if they can’t buy a phone on Mi.com they will look to other resources such as re-sellers to get their phones. Xiaomi is at point where they are so popular in some countries (China and India) that people will do whatever it takes to get their hands on one.
Bring one to India too…