Digital Theory: To make up for its shortcomings, realme is going to start anew in the Chinese mobile phone market

Realme returned to China for development last year. However, due to the lack of support from OPPO and the fierce competition in the domestic mobile phone market, Realme's development in China has been lackluster. We have analyzed this in the article "Digital Theory: As an international giant, why is Realme not very popular in China?"

Data from the retail position of the Chinese mobile phone market in July 2020 released by Zhihu expert @安乎都護府长史 showed that realme's overall market share in that month was 0.2%, a year-on-year negative growth of 61.9%; in terms of cumulative market share, as of July, realme's cumulative overall market share was 0.3%, a year-on-year cumulative growth of 58.8%.

Image source: Zhihu

Image source: Zhihu

From the data, we can see that realme has a very small market share in the domestic mobile phone market. Once there is a slight disturbance in the market, its data changes greatly, either soaring or plummeting. This is both a good thing and a bad thing for realme. Because as long as it is handled properly, the effect can be immediate, so realme and OPPO thought about it and decided to do something big.

The first thing is to make up for the shortcomings in after-sales service. With Liu Zuohu becoming the Chief Product Experience Officer of Ouga and OPPO Mall being renamed Ouga Mall and Huantai Mall respectively, realme's development in the domestic mobile phone market has ushered in a turning point.

realme V5 became the first non-OPPO mobile phone product to be listed on HuanTian Mall (formerly OPPO Mall). Since then, products such as realme X50 Pro, realme X50 Pro Player Edition, realme Buds Q have also appeared in HuanTian Mall. Even the latest realme X7 series can be seen in HuanTian Mall. Realme has almost moved all the products released in China this year to HuanTian Mall.

The launch of realme products on HuanTian Mall is of great significance to consumers. It means that consumers who buy realme products on the platform can go to OPPO's offline stores to enjoy after-sales services, without having to use realme's mail-in repair service.

Image source: Mobile screenshot

Image source: Weibo

According to official sources, Realme currently has 11 mail-in repair outlets and more than 900 offline service outlets in China, covering 293 cities. In addition, Realme has authorized some OPPO offline outlets as Realme after-sales service points to fill the gap in Realme's previous offline after-sales service. Backed by OPPO, Realme has finally made up for the shortcomings of after-sales service in the domestic market.

Next is the product line adjustment. Realme has also reorganized its product line in the Chinese mobile phone market, adjusting it from the original Q series, X digital series, and X digital Pro series to the V series and X series.

Realme Vice President and Global Marketing President Xu Qi said that in order to further simplify the naming and application, the official core naming of the products has returned to the series + unit number method, which is also to better represent the positioning and concept of each series. The V series focuses on battery life and is a popular 5G product. The classic X series clearly focuses on design and brings consumers a new and surprising experience.

It has to be said that realme's product line adjustment is very timely. The Q series has not been updated for nearly a year and has been basically forgotten by consumers in the flourishing thousand-yuan phone market. The names of the X-digital series and the X-digital Pro series are not much different, which is easy to be confused by consumers. This year, from realme X50, realme X50 Pro to realme X50m and realme X50 Pro Player Edition, people can't tell the difference between them. Even industry insiders have to be confused, or it takes a while to tell the difference between the four mobile phones.

Finally, it is to expand sales channels. In addition to its own realme mall, realme offline stores, JD.com and other online channels, realme has also expanded its sales channels. This year, realme reached a strategic cooperation with Suning.com and entered offline stores across the country.

In addition, consumers can also buy realme products in some mobile business halls, D.Phone, Suning and other social channel stores across the country.

From filling the gaps in after-sales service to adjusting product lines and expanding sales channels, realme's operations are equivalent to starting over in the Chinese mobile phone market. As for the effect, it remains to be seen.