Bharti Airtel has launched an online store www.airtel.in/onlinestore offering select smartphones with bundled plans, down payments, instant credit verification and financing.
Airtel has tied with Apple, HDFC Bank, Clix Capital, Seynse Technologies, Brightstar and Vulcan Express to sell smartphones at its online store.
The strategy to bring out new advanced phones with bundled phones will improve the revenue and profit of Airtel. Usually, smartphone makers supply their premium phones to telecom operators to enhance their reach to premium customers.
US telecom operators such as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint have a strong portfolio of bundled plans to promote most of the global smartphone brands. The tie up with telecom operators in the U.S. assists smartphone makers to reach out to more customers with cost effective financing plans along with data bundles.
Airtel said its online store service is currently available to customers in 21 cities across India. Airtel will expand the ecommerce presence to other cities and towns shortly.
Airtel has started selling Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus at its Online Store. Airtel will add more devices in the near future. Reliance Jio was instrumental in bringing out the Apple iPhone 8 brand to India.
Airtel is offering the iPhone 7 (32 GB) for a down payment of Rs 7,777 and 24 monthly installments of Rs 2,499. The company offers postpaid plan offering 30 GB data, unlimited local, STD, national roaming, and Airtel Secure package that covers the device against any physical damage and offers cyber protection.
Airtel said its Online Store launch is part of Project Next – Airtel’s digital innovation program aimed at transforming customer experience across all of its services and touch points. Airtel plans to invest up to Rs 2000 crores under Project Next to launch several digital innovations.
“Imagine getting your dream device, instant credit to purchase it and a great plan to go with it, all available in one place with a few clicks. All this is a product of some cutting-edge digital engineering by the in-house teams at Airtel,” said Harmeen Mehta, global CIO and director – Engineering, Bharti Airtel.
