OnePlus is a primarily online-based company. It does sell its phones in some physical stores like T-Mobile stores in the US, but most of its traffic is done via online retailers. The company’s been doing well with this strategy, but there are people who prefer to shop at a store and get the phone right then and there. The only thing is that offering phones in stores is actually a pretty tough thing to do especially for smaller companies. This is why you don’t really see many smaller brands’ phones lining store shelves. You’ll mostly see Samsung phones, iPhones, Motorola phones, Pixel phones, etc. in stores.
But, OnePlus can expand to 10,000 stores just like that!
So, why can OnePlus just expand to more stores with what seems like a snap of the finger? Well, as stated, the company merged with its sister company Oppo. This opened up a pool of resources that was unavailable to the company previously; we can’t deny that Oppo is a larger company. According to an interview with Li Jie, (via Gizmochina) OnePlus’ Chinese president, OnePlus can expand its phones to 10,000 Oppo locations. Usually, when expanding to a location, it takes a large investment. However, Li Jie stated that it could open its OnePlus experience stores at these locations to offer its products. “OPPO’s store is ready-made, the rent has been paid, and the basic salary of the experienced consultant has been paid.” Basically, OnePlus can expand to these locations on the cheap side. With this strategy, OnePlus can expand to 2,800 county towns, 4,000 business districts, and 5,000 additional locations. We don’t know if the company is planning on following through with this. If so, we don’t know if all 10,000 locations will get OnePlus phones. Regardless, we can expect some sort of expansion, at least.
