Recently offline retailers in South India announced not to sell OnePlus brand products based on several serious complaints. Now offline retailers have hit out at another Chinese company. In fact, the All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) has expressed displeasure with Poco for giving more privileges to online channels and cornering offline retailers. Not only this, the company has also been accused of unfair trade practices and product distribution through non-regular distribution channels. Keeping these factors in mind, AIMRA has demanded cancellation of Poco’s trading license in India.
Why have offline retailers accused Poco of unfair trade practices?
According to a recent report, AIMRA has submitted all complaints against the company in writing to Himanshu Tandon, country head of Poco India in Halfil. According to the letter, Poco is relying more on online retailers and e-commerce giants to boost its sales. This is why – online retailers are providing additional benefits like more discounts with the product, making it available online before the offline market, offering higher sales margins, etc. On the contrary, offline retailers are not given any special priority.
The letter also claims that Poco is distributing products through illegal distribution channels without any valid documentation. It has been alleged that the company has chosen such a route for tax evasion.
However, Himanshu Tandon has denied all the allegations leveled by AIMRA. In response he said, “Poco India is committed to providing customers with a variety of options. Of course the entire process is done through legitimate channels.” That’s why Poco has recently signed an agreement with Jio Digital Mart as the official offline distributor for its main line retail partners, said the Poco official.
However, AIMRA authorities are not at all satisfied with Himanshu’s reply. Instead, they have again alleged that Poco is failing to deliver products on time in some states of India. But the device ordered online is being delivered on time. In view of all these allegations, Indian offline retailers have made it clear that they are adamant on the claim that ‘POCO is biased’.
