According to a senior executive, Samsung Electronics is aiming to increase repeat purchases from its 175 million Indian customers through a new cashback credit card in an effort to increase sales in the crucial market where it was once the top smartphone seller.

The South Korean electronics giant launched a new credit card with India’s Axis Bank on Monday to offer 10 per cent cashback all year long to customers buying Samsung products as the country’s holiday season got underway.

Such discount offers typically only appear on brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce sites like Amazon.com Inc. during special occasions or sales.

“We are talking about 175 million existing consumers, which is our current installed base for Samsung in India. This entire base is a potential,” Raju Pullan, Samsung’s senior vice-president for its India mobile business, told Reuters.

Samsung claims to be the largest consumer electronics company in India and sells everything from smartphones to washing machines there. However, smartphones accounted for nearly 72 per cent of its $9.3 billion in total India revenue in 2020–21.

After losing over time smartphone market share to Chinese rivals like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo, who provide a number of low-cost smartphones in the second-largest mobile market in the world, Samsung has decided to offer cashbacks to customers through its new card partnership.

According to data from Counterpoint Research, Samsung had a 26 per cent market share of India’s smartphone market in the second quarter of 2020; the market is now at 19 per cent.

“Samsung is going aggressive on the financing side of things. Financial support plays an important role in helping people make smartphone purchase decisions,” Counterpoint analyst Tarun Pathak said.

(Adapted from TechInvestorNews.com)

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