After a continued tussle with Indian authorities over lack of two-factor authentication support for its payments, Uber has announced that all future payments will be carried out exclusively through a digital wallet powered by Paytm. Customers interested in riding with Uber have to set up their debit cards on Paytm and add money to their digital wallets.

To incentivize the move to Paytm’s service, Uber has been offering five free rides last week to all users who have linked their cards to Paytm’s digital wallet. Uber has been vocal with regards to the Reserve Bank Of India’s mandate that requires all businesses to provide two-factor authentication for all transactions online, calling the move “a major challenge for businesses trying to offer Indian consumers a better purchasing experience.”

Two-factor authentication woes

Back when Uber launched in the country earlier this year, it allowed customers to pay using a credit card without two-factor authentication, which drew the ire of the RBI. Uber was able to circumnavigate Indian business rules by processing transactions through its Netherlands subsidiary, leading to a formal inquiry by the RBI to curtail such measures. The Indian regulator dictated that any service operating out of India has to offer payment services within the country.

Uber was given until Nov. 30 to comply with RBI’s regulations, which led to the service collaborating with Paytm. Uber’s reticence to do so was evident in a blog post on its official blog, which labels the mandatory two-factor authentication as “an antiquated solution that is cumbersome for consumers and stifling for businesses.”

“India’s current regulations require every transaction made with an Indian credit card, no matter how small the amount, to include two-factor authentication (2FA). As you are aware, we recently expanded the available payment options on Uber to include a Paytm Wallet, which allows you to pay for your rides through Debit Card, Credit Card and Net Banking. Paytm is the leading e-wallet provider in India, and this solution is 100% compliant with all applicable regulations including 2FA.“ 

With the new system in place, customers will be able to add money to their wallets using a debit card using the Verified by Visa or MasterCard Securecode two-factor authentication systems. The points Uber mentions in its blog post are all valid. While the two-factor authentication is a vital security measure, the RBI should be willing to allow certain service providers to make it convenient for users to pay without having to undergo an additional step.

Tough for the customer

As a long-time Uber customer in India, I can say that the two-factor authentication is more cumbersome to use in this particular instance. Adding money to a digital wallet before availing the service is often frustrating, and the redirection to Visa or Mastercard’s authorization services is not always seamless.

Furthermore, while the collaboration with Uber may seem like a profitable move for India’s Paytm, the service’s CEO revealed that it is not as lucrative as it seems:

Our RBI licence doesn’t allow any interest earning or other use of this money in ur wallet. Kept in a nationalised bank escrow on ur behalf.

— Vijay Shekhar (@vijayshekhar) December 1, 2014

Uber is now asking the RBI for a 45-day extension to allow existing customers to move to the digital wallet service. As for new user acquisition, Uber is set to challenge the autorickshaw industry with its latest pricing tier, UberGo. The low price tier, which is now being rolled out in ten cities across India, allows customers to ride in a taxicab for far less than what it costs in an auto. Uber even made a chart to highlight the price difference:

With several pricing tiers and affordable pricing across categories, it is clear that Uber is targeting growth in the country in lieu of profits. UberBlack, for instance, is priced at an aggressive Rs. 18 ($0.3) per kilometer. As to whether any of this succeeds in getting the service a considerable amount of traction remains to be seen.

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Electronic commerce in its many forms has improved how businesses deal with customers. Online businesses earn even more during the holiday seasons. According to BI Intelligence, retailers will generate about $100 billion in online sales in Q4 2014 alone — a 16% increase compared to the same period in 2013. Even as mobile commerce has given rise to an all new business model for users in both developed and emerging economies, though, businesses will need to optimize the way sellers price their goods.

According to Arie Shpanya, CEO of pricing analytics firm Wiser, the key to effective e- and m-commerce is finding the right mix of product, timing and price. Shpanya’s team founded the big data startup with the basic ideal of enabling businesses to offer “the right product, at the right time, at the right price.”

A second-time e-commerce entrepreneur, Shpanya successfully bootstrapped his first startup in 2009, with similar focus on online retail analytics. The Israel-based entrepreneur actually came from a legal background. He has an LLB degree and worked for Israel’s attorney general prior to his involvement in tech startups. However, his expertise is not entirely unrelated, as he has specialized in intellectual property law, internet law and contracts law. In terms of running a small business with partners and investors on board, knowledge of the law can be helpful in ensuring you don’t get the losing end of a business deal.

Wiser actually counts several high-ranking executives from e-commerce companies like Amazon and eBay, and advisors include luminaries from both brick-and-mortar businesses and online enterprises like Wal-Mart, Staples and Toys R Us. Even with these connections, however, Shpanya says that Wiser’s end goal is to disrupt major online retailers’ hold on dynamic pricing by enabling retailers at large to dynamically-price their own goods.

Having big data is not enough, however. What matters is finding meaning and getting actionable insights from this data. Here is an excerpt of Bright Side of News*’ interview with Shpanya.

Bright Side of News*: What was your inspiration for the idea behind Wiser? What’s the importance of pricing strategy for businesses?

Arie Shpanya: For retailers, it’s all about offering the right product, at the right time, at the right price. It seemed like there was one eCommerce behemoth (Amazon) that was doing it right by utilizing the power of data to optimize their strategy. We created Wiser because we wanted to disrupt Amazon’s hold on dynamic pricing by providing the necessary technology to retailers. We bring Amazon’s wisdom to the world’s top merchants by monitoring over 25 million products daily and analyzing data in real-time.

Pricing strategy affects your top and bottom line. But staying both competitive AND profitable in a rapidly changing marketplace can be incredibly difficult. You don’t want to get caught in a price war, but you don’t want to lose sales to a lower priced competitor. An effective pricing strategy is finding the balance and choosing a flexible pricing strategy that identifies and capitalized on opportunities to raise prices at times, and optimize for revenue or profit, according to your overall business goal.

BSN*: What is the advantage of using big data analysis instead of doing market research through other means?

AS: The key is automation, and analysis.

Wiser not only arms retailers with pricing intelligence and repricing, but is also innovating on the cutting edge of e-commerce pricing. Wiser empowers retailers with advanced tools such as assortment optimization, demand elasticity engines (multi-factor estimation and cross-product elasticity to name a few) and machine learning algorithms that maximize sales while maintaining margins. Wiser partners with merchandisers, marketers, and buyers alike by empowering them with the necessary tools to build and sustain real business value.

Pricing is elusive, painful, constantly changing and based on hundreds of different factors. Wiser breaks that down — specifies it for your business and provides you with the strategies that will make you more profitable or fit within the strategy your organization has adopted. It’s nimble, flexible and performs on-demand.

BSN*: Can you share some trends in data science? Is there anything significant that has happened in this industry that entrepreneurs, developers and even users should be interested in?

AS: Big data isn’t just a buzzword. We all have piles and piles of data – now it’s really about providing meaning and getting actionable insights from that data.

One major trend is emphasis on real-time analysis. This is only possible with automation.

Another is the democratization of it. There is a need for (and rise of) easy-to-use tools that aggregate and perform advanced analysis that was previously limited to behemoths with the resources/budget that most companies do not have.

BSN*: Do you have any advice for entrepreneurs or startups in search of viable ideas? What industry or specialization should one focus on?

AS: Rather than limit your thinking to a particular industry or specialization, think about it this way. Identify a need — are you solving a real problem/pain point/unmet need? — and go from there.

Featured image credit: e-Commerce / Shutterstock

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The Indian e-commerce industry is booming thanks to lucrative discounts and exclusive partnerships secured by various retailers. However, the biggest obstacle to the continued success of the segment in India may come from within as several brick and mortar retailers have formed a coalition that aims to curtail the benefits offered by e-tailers.

Retailers take the fight to e-tailers

The issue began earlier this year, when retailers began questioning the heavy discounts offered by e-commerce stores, which in turn was cannibalizing sales from offline channels. The retailers took up the matter with the hardware vendors directly and were able to convince brands like Lenovo against selling their wares online. Lenovo (HKG:0992) even had a notice on its website stating that its products were to be purchased only from its official site or from its offline distributors. The brand’s managing director for India, Amar Babu, said that the goal was to establish price normalcy. “We are trying to weed out unhygienic practices to create a healthy environment between online and offline markets,” he is quoted as saying.

Even Samsung (KRX:005935) was said to be swayed, and is rumored to be considering going offline in the country. While there hasn’t been any official confirmation from the South Korean vendor yet, going offline may offer a solution to declining sales. Sony (NYSE:SNE) is also joining the fray and is advising users to buy from its own authorized stores. LG (KRX:066570), meanwhile issued a statement announcing that it has the right to withhold warranties for products purchased from online stores other than its official website in the country. Canon (TYO:7751) has taken a different route, and is said to be considering offering a unique set of products for online sales.

As for retailers, a new body called the All India Mobile Retailers’ Association, which claims to represent over 10,000 brick and mortar retailers, has been created to look into the pricing practices carried out by online vendors.

E-commerce stores go exclusive

The main issue with online stores is that the stores themselves have no control of the pricing. Stores like Amazon and Flipkart follow a marketplace model, which means that the third party sellers effectively have full control over how much price they can set on a product.

The result is that when it comes to mobiles – the biggest selling category in e-commerce in India – stores offer discounts up to Rs. 3,000 ($50) from what is available offline, not including the freebies that come bundled with purchases. The sellers that were selling the wares procured the goods at a wholesale price, which is noticeably lesser than what the consumer pays for a device. This is how they were able to mark down the price of a handset and still gain a profit. The offline stores were not able to follow suit due to the overhead costs from stocking a device in a brick-and-mortar store.

While offline retailers have sought to get products removed from e-commerce stores, sites like Flipkart (BOM:514215) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) have formed collaborations of their own. Flipkart in particular was able to secure exclusive partnerships with Motorola and Xiaomi, which saw the site become the only authorized location to get products from either vendor in the country. Amazon has not been as successful, although it did manage to get exclusive rights to the Xbox One in India. Along with exclusive deals, the sites regularly run deals and offers, although a recent deal by Flipkart resulted in further tension between offline and online vendors.

Big Billion Day

While the idea behind Flipkart’s Big Billion Day sale held on October 6 was admirable, the execution was far from it. For one day only, the site offered heavy discounts on over 10,000 products across all categories, and ran hourly deals that saw prices of products slashed by as much as 80%. However, the site failed to load for most of the day, and products were sold out in under five seconds of going on sale. That’s not to say the retailer did not do a lot of business. Flipkart claimed that it sold goods worth over $100 million in just 10 hours.

The sales figure is the only good thing to come out of what is being termed a debacle, as both consumers and vendors have lodged complaints against Flipkart for the sale. Consumers mentioned that the site was misleading in the offers it quoted, while hardware vendors said that they did not authorize the heavy discounts that were posted during the sale. Sony’s Indian sales head Sunil Nayyar was particularly vehement about the practice, stating that, “the online sale war of Monday (Big Billion Day) was really disappointing and alarming. This is not the way we have agreed to do business as partners. We have decided to handle online discounts now with an iron hand and will ensure Sony is not involved again and there is a fair play for all channels.”

A complaint has been filed earlier this week with the Competition Commission of India to further investigate the issue, and to look into the discounts that were offered by all e-commerce sites during the festive season, which ran the length of October.

At the end of the day, it is clear that the disagreement comes with the disparity in pricing. Offline retailers want to be able to maintain their markups, and since they’re in the majority for now, they have enough clout to influence the decisions of the manufacturers. It is frustrating to see vendors fighting over discounts and seeking measures to curtail such practices, which in fact benefit consumers. One of the reasons for the massive growth of the e-commerce segment was the discounted prices from offline channels, and although it looks like retailers will be successful in cutting down on what they call “unsustainable pricing”, it is not hard to see that it is they who will lose out in the end and more and more consumers start buying online.

The post The Brewing E-tailer-Retailer War in India appeared first on VR World.

The Indian e-commerce industry is set to witness a dramatic change in the way it functions as offline retailers seek to curtail the “unsustainable pricing” practices that are being followed by sellers online. The move to limit heavy discounts and delist products from online stores is a direct result of complaints levied by retailers to hardware manufacturers.

According to offline retailers, who contribute to a bulk of sales in the country, there is no check on the prices being set by e-commerce stores as they follow a marketplace model, which gives full control as far as prices are concerned to the third-part sellers listing products on the sites. The manufacturers have thus far sided with the retailers in the battle, with several vendors like Sony (NYSE:SNE), Lenovo (HKG:0992) and LG (KRX:066570) advising users to only buy products through their official websites in the country.

Amazon India and Flipkart, the leading e-commerce website in the country, have come under a lot of criticism and are set to face scrutiny by the Competition Commission of India, a government body that investigates malpractice.

To read the full story, head to VR World, Bright Side of News* Asia-Pacific sister site.

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PayPal has announced the availability of its Pay After Delivery feature, which enables users to pay for goods up to 14 days after making the purchase. Announced at the ongoing Money2020 conference, the service had been in pilot in Europe for some time now, making its official debut in the US after positive consumer feedback.

According to PayPal, this move was done in order to give customers “the same level of confidence whether they shop online or in store.” By paying for goods once or after receiving the delivery, customers will have peace of mind that they will not need to part with their money even before receiving the goods in the mail.

Pay After Delivery also gives users a choice as to their source of funding once they decide to confirm the payment — this may include PayPal balance, credit card or bank account. Pay After Delivery essentially gives customers a 14-day line of credit for making online purchases, so the feature requires a Verified account and is currently available to US account holders. The company does plan to roll out the functionality to other regions on a gradual basis.

The electronic payments space is heating up, especially with Apple’s (NASDAQ:APPL) big push to popularize Apple Pay amongst users of compatible mobile and wearable devices. With mobile helping reduce transactional friction, companies like PayPal need to find ways to innovate or at least make existing offerings more convenient to use. PayPal is actually being spun off of its eBay parent company, in order to improve its focus.

Apart from the Pay After Delivery feature, the company has also made recent partnerships that enable users to place orders ahead of time and pay only when they get the actual goods. In this case, PayPal has co-developed a mobile app with Tillster for use across Burger King (NYSE: BKW) restaurants across the US. Diners can place orders through the iOS or Android app, and the payment will only be debited once the user shows a code to the Burger King cashier.

For its enterprise and small business customers, PayPal has also announced a partnership with GoDaddy, which will pre-install the PayPal Express Checkout button for its clients that use the GoDaddy Online Store. Likewise, PayPal has partnered with Visa-owned Authorize.Net and Cybersource, which will enable small business customers to accept PayPal payments along with other payment methods.

The post PayPal's Pay After Delivery: A 2-Week Line of Credit appeared first on VR World.

It is said that rising automotive sales is a sign of a booming economy, especially if it involves luxury and novelty cars. In China, Tesla has already made a foothold, launching online retail stores for 38 cities across the country. However, while Tesla has traditionally only sold its vehicles through its own website, it will start selling the Model S through Alibaba’s (NYSE:BABA) Tmall e-commerce service starting November 11th.

That particular date is called Singles Day in the country or “Guanggun Jie,” which celebrates singlehood. Businesses have joined in on the festivities, however, and with sales and promotions, Singles Day also marks a time for discounts and promotions.

Buyers can pay CNY 50,000 ($8,200) as reservation via tesla.tmall.com, after which the fund is held in escrow under the user’s Yuebao interest-bearing mutual fund account. The Model S starts at CNY 734,000 ($121,000) — significantly lower than comparable sports cars sold in China. Tesla says buyers can then pay the balance upon pick up, which can be in as short as five days. Dealerships in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, or Shenzhen, serve as pick up points.

Tesla’s Tmall online store also offers other items, like clothing, caps, mugs, toolboxes and blankets. It can be noted that the partnership between Tesla and Alibaba actually started in April this year, when Tesla started accepting payments through Alipay for Chinese buyers. Other automotive brands have also offered similar deals and arrangements through Tmall, including Volkswagen (OTCMKTS:VLKAY) and General Motors (NYSE:GM).

Tesla’s direct marketing and selling method has been in the news lately, with Michigan effectively blocking sales within its jurisdiction, citing the need to “ensure that all automotive manufacturers follow the same rules to operate in the State of Michigan.” As Michigan law will now require Tesla to sell through dealerships (if it wishes to), that will require significant investment, which will result in price increases for buyers in that state.

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eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) has announced that it will be separating PayPal into a distinct public company, a move that will be complete by mid-2015. This spin-off is a strategy that had earlier been demanded by activist investor Carl Icahn, who acquired a stake in eBay earlier this year.

Icahn sought for eBay to spin off PayPal (or a huge part, thereof) as a means to generate value for shareholders. He argued this would highlight PayPal’s own strengths, while enabling eBay’s management to focus on its core business. eBay fought against this proposal, arguing that more than 30% of PayPal’s revenue and 50% of its profits come from eBay transactions. eBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe says Icahn’s proposal had been a consideration, although management arrived at this decision after a thorough strategic review with the board of directors, and not due to pressure.

“Our board and management team believe that putting eBay and PayPal on independent paths in 2015 is best for each business and will create additional value for our shareholders,” says Donahoe in a statement.

With this move, eBay’s business will be split almost in half, with its e-commerce business and the PayPal payment service splitting off into two distinct public entities. Dan Schulman, an executive at American Express, will serve as the new president at PayPal effective immediately, and will be chief executive once the split is complete. Meanwhile, David Wenig, currently the president at eBay Marketplaces, will be the CEO at the newly-formed eBay Inc. Donahoe will step down as chief executive by that time.

A changing competitive landscape

According to Donahoe, the decision to split was led by a changing competitive landscape. Although no specifics were given, it is likely that the rise of alternative payment platforms like Square, Stripe and even Apple’s own Apple Pay mobile payment service, are proving to be a challenge to PayPal’s position in the online payments market. Thus, separation will enable “sharper strategic focus” from each company in addressing the demands of an increasingly mobile payments landscape.

In addition, the synergy once derived by eBay and PayPal from operating as  single entity will decline over time, management admits. Icahn himself argued that eBay’s ownership of PayPal had created conflicts of interest, such as issues in partnering with competing platforms. Still, eBay and PayPal expect to capitalize on the strengths of its existing relationship through licensing and other agreements. “Arm’s length operating agreements can formalize the existing relationships between the two companies and capture ongoing synergies,” said Donahoe.

Maximum flexibility

In direct contrast to mergers and acquisitions, corporate spin-offs and breakups have become a favored strategy for companies that wish to simplify their businesses and address shareholder demands for tighter, more agile operations. This had been one contention of Icahn, who actually won a mutually-agreed board seat even as eBay had rebuffed his earlier calls for a split up. Donahoe agreed that “the pace of change accelerated over the past six months” in the payments sector, especially with the emergence of mobile-focused payment services, as well as Alibaba’s recent IPO (Alibaba runs Alipay).

Donahoe admits that being part of eBay had contributed greatly to the growth of PayPal in the 12 years since eBay’s acquisition. However, “beyond 2015, eBay and PayPal will each benefit more and create greater value from the strategic focus, speed, flexibility and agility that come with being independent publicly traded companies.”

According to eBay, the spin off will “maximize strategic focus and flexibility for eBay and PayPal to capitalize on respective growth opportunities in highly competitive, rapidly changing global commerce and payments markets.” It will also “provide shareholders with more targeted investment opportunities, and the best path to sustainable shareholder value.”

Potential benefits

Mobile. PayPal reported $7.2 billion in revenue in the past 12 months, during which it processed $203 billion in payments. The company facilitates approximately 17% of all online payment transactions today. However, only about 13% of these are made through mobile devices.

In 2013, PayPal processed $27 billion in mobile payments volume worldwide. According to eMarketer, mobile payments in the US alone are expected to total $118 billion by 2018, up from $3.5 billion this year. PayPal faces competition from the likes of Stripe, however, which recently made deals with Facebook and Twitter to facilitate mobile payments for their respective platforms.

Flexibility. As long as PayPal is tied to eBay, it is limited in terms of the partnerships it can pursue. For instance, e-commerce companies like Amazon and Alibaba run their own payment services, and e-commerce firms will not be keen on partnering because of PayPal’s ties with what they consider to be a big competitor. Apple and Google also run their own mobile wallets, which run on their respective platforms.

One clear example of PayPal facing the crunch in terms of partnerships: it was reportedly excluded as a preferred partner on Apple Pay because of its partnership with Samsung for the Galaxy S5 fingerprint-based payment system. With PayPal’s spin-off, it will be able to be more agile and flexible in pursuing deals with other e-commerce and mobile platforms.

Talent. Despite growing 20% annually, PayPal is not among the top workplaces for top talent, according to sources cited by Re/code. The company has tried to attract good engineering and product-driven talent by acquiring startups like Zong and Braintree. However, given corporate limitations this did not prove enough. An independent PayPal would be better able to attract talent and retain its employees by issuing its own stock options. Donahoe himself has cited the need to attract good talent as among the considerations. “How do I get the best C.E.O. going forward?”

A bigger exit. Another potential benefit for either PayPal and eBay would be the potential for a takeover by the likes of Google. The search giant has been cited by analysts as a potential buyer or investor, and PayPal splitting from eBay makes it an easier target to acquire. This will likely result in PayPal improving its position in the mobile space, with Android leading the smartphone industry by volume.

eBay shares were up 7.54% the day the split was announced. According to Donahoe, eBay Inc. plans to complete the transaction as a tax-free spin-off mid 2015. Donahoe and CFO Bob Swan will lead the separation of each business with board oversight, and will serve on either or both boards, to provide continuity.

Featured image credit: Twin Design / Shutterstock.com

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Indian e-commerce industry is on the growth trajectory, with several retailers getting a massive influx of revenues. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos is in the country to chart further growth for Amazon’s Indian outfit, and there have been significant investments over the course of the year in other major e-commerce stores like Flipkart.

However, it looks like there will be a major change in the mobile segment as it was revealed earlier this month that Samsung (KRX:005935) is mulling a move to an offline-only business model. Such a model does not make much sense considering that e-commerce stores offer better deals and discounts to users, but it is believed that several brick and mortar retailers across the country have largely contributed to Samsung’s decision to go offline.

The bid to go offline

There have been significant rumblings in the offline distribution channels over the course of the year as brick and mortar stores have seen their customer base dwindle due to the rise of the e-commerce stores. Several retailers have been vehement in stating that they would refuse to carry Samsung products unless the manufacturer decides to offer them exclusively online. The main reason why retailers are so worried about e-commerce sites is that there isn’t any method to control the prices. For instance, the Galaxy S5 price online in India is $575 (Rs. 35,400) whereas in an offline store it is in the vicinity of $633 (Rs. 39,000).

This led to the creation of a union of sorts called the All India Mobile Retailers Association, which is the coalition of brick and mortar stores from across the country. The stores have banded together to ensure that the price hygiene – the price of a handset across cities and states – stays fixed. Samsung’s incentive in going offline is that it can retain a healthy margin, which an executive has said has dwindled to single digits due to low pricing from e-commerce stores. Samsung met with AIMRA members in New Delhi last month to discuss the move to go offline, and while the South Korean manufacturer hasn’t offered a statement confirming the decision, it is looking likely that its upcoming products like the Galaxy Note 4 will be available only through brick and mortar stores.

The move does not mean that Samsung will cease to sell all products online, as the manufacturer has stated that it will look to offer exclusive deals to e-commerce stores in selling select devices. For instance, the Galaxy K Zoom is available exclusively via Amazon in the country. However, it is unlikely that devices in the Galaxy Note line will be available online in the future. Another contributor must also have been effective pricing: Samsung wants more control on setting the prices on its devices, which it does not have online. By going offline, Samsung can assert more control in terms of pricing its handsets and setting limits on the amount of discounts retailers can offer. We may see this sooner rather than later as the Galaxy Note 4 price in India is claimed to be in the vicinity of around $894 (Rs. 55,000), which is very similar to what the price of the iPhone 6 Plus is rumored to be in the country.

Oddly enough, Samsung isn’t the only one who would be following an offline-only model in the country. Chinese vendor Gionee also sells its handsets exclusively through offline channels in the country, and was quick to quote that it was able to sell 5 million handsets this year. Gionee is making significant inroads into the Indian market by advertising aggressively and maintaining a strong presence at brick and mortar stores.

Samsung doesn’t need to worry about market presence, as its wares are constantly featured in advertisements and billboards. With a total of 48 devices available to consumers across all price segment in the country, the manufacturer offers an abundance of choice. What customers don’t get with Samsung is great value for money, which sums up why the manufacturer is thinking of shifting to an offline-only strategy in the first place.

Turbulent times for Samsung

Although Samsung was the largest handset vendor in the country in 2013, it lost its position to Micromax this year. A combination of lackluster device launches combined with high pricing has led to the South Korean vendor’s shift in fortunes. With the introduction of Motorola’s Moto G, Moto X and the Nexus 5, and the more recent entry of devices like the Xiaomi Mi 3 has meant that Indian consumers are spoilt for choice when it comes to handsets that offer a great set of features at an affordable price. Samsung not only lost out in the mid-tier segment this year, but also in the high-end category as the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S5 failed to meet the vendor’s sales targets.

Xiaomi has been highly successful in generating a lot of attention for its handsets thanks to its unique flash sale model, which has seen over 40,000 devices being sold in under five seconds. Xiaomi’s devices were also in great demand as the manufacturer was offering hardware that was available for a third of what Samsung was charging.

More recently, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) made its move into the entry-level segment with the announcement of Android One, which will serve to further consolidate the market share of local vendors in the country. Samsung is noticeably absent from the list of Android One vendors, and while the manufacturer is set to launch its own offering that targets this segment, it is unlikely it will match what the Android One handsets offer, both in terms of hardware as well as software features.

With the handset vendor losing ground in India as well as other global markets in light of stiffer competition, it remains to be seen whether a move to offline-only sales is a smart choice in the long run. For now, however, it is looking likely that consumers in India have to head to a brick and mortar store if they want to get their hands on a Galaxy Note 4.

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