Mobile makers get retailer ultimatum on online discounts

Kolkata: More than 50,000 mobile phone retailers have given an ultimatum to the top five smartphone brands to permanently stop online discounting and launch of online exclusive models, claiming that the ecommerce push had badly hurt their business. Else, these retailers have threatened, they would sell the devices at the same price as online and seek compensation from the brands’ distributors or even boycott them completely.

These brick-and-mortar stores across the country, backed by some leading chains, have jointly written through their association to Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and Realme, which together sell nearly nine out of every 10 smartphones in the market, in the latest war by offline retailers against