Motorola has re-entered the Indian market by launching it’s low-end device Moto G exclusively on Flipkart. Moto G is priced at Rs 12,499 for 8GB model and Rs 13,999 for 16GB model at Flipkart which is selling the device exclusively at launch.
Moto G supports dual SIM and runs on 1.2 GHz A7 Quad Core Processor with 1GB RAM. It has a 4.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1280×720, a 5 mega pixel camera at the back, 1.3 MP front-facing camera and will run on Jelly Bean OS at launch. Moto G devices have received KitKat update over the air so we are hoping that the variant sold in India will also receive the same. It needs to be noted that the device supports 720p video recording only and does not offer full-HD support. UPDATE: KitKat update will be rolled out in a few days.
BGR points out that, Snapdeal has listed the phone too, but it will sell the phone only in mid-February indicating that Flipkart probably got exclusivity for two weeks on the device.
Lenovo had bought Motorola Mobility last week for $2.9 billion, but Motorola’s operations in India have not been merged with that of Lenovo yet. Motorola, which shut down its India operations in 2012, currently has 80 service centres here and it needs to be seen if these service centres will be taken over by Lenovo or shut down later on.
Everyone wants an exclusive
Deals was something that all e-commerce companies did in 2013 which made us even wonder if an event like GOSF made sense anymore. In 2014, it looks like e-commerce companies will be focusing on getting more exclusive deals like this one. Till now exclusives in e-commerce were restricted to fashion space. Myntra had exclusive deals with Raised on Denim, HRX, Manish Arora among others. Similarly, fashion e-commerce venture Stylista.com* had last month signed an exclusive deal with Jabong to sell their designer wears for four months, following which it was planning on offering their products on Myntra and Flipkart.
There were also rumours of Sony launching PlayStation 4 in India exclusively on Amazon, as the e-commerce giant was planning to launch a games section in India. However, it looks like the talks fell through at some point and the company did a soft launch of the store in December and listed the section in the home page this week.
In phone category, ZTE phone running Firefox OS was sold exclusively on eBay India and the e-commerce giant even ran a contest around the same.
Why do e-commerce companies want exclusives?: As Stylista CEO Avnish Chhabria pointed out, e-commerce companies get product differentiation with exclusivity. Most of the big e-commerce players in India are marketplaces, so exclusives are a good way for companies to make themselves standout. We do not have any actual numbers of how such a deal would work for e-commerce companies, but we can assume that it helps them get new customers and engage existing customers.
Why are companies okay with exclusives?: It defies conventional wisdom to offer a product exclusively instead of pushing it out to multiple sites for wider reach. The reason these deals exist and companies are opting for them is because of the marketing support e-commerce companies offer in return for exclusivity; even if it’s just for two weeks.
Look at Flipkart here, it is offering Rs 500 off on ebooks, Rs 1,000 for buying clothes from its stores, 70% on Moto G accessories and even a chance to get 100% cash back as in-store credit if you buy the device from them. (Note: Credit from this wallet can only be used to buy products sold by WS-Retail) E-commerce companies classify such freebies as marketing spend and looking at the number of offers Flipkart is throwing in with the phone, it is evident that Motorola saved a lot of money it would have spent otherwise trying to market this product in India. For companies like Motorola that did not have a big team here, such tie-ups make sense. It would be interesting if smaller Indian companies let’s say a Micromax or Karbonn or Lava starts selling their devices exclusively via these stores.
*Disclosure: Rishi Khiani’s AntFarm, which has launched Stylista, is an advertiser with MediaNama