MTS plans before the end of 2016 to open in the largest cities of Russia several tens of monobrand salons Samsung. This told the press Secretary of the operator Dmitry Solodovnikov.
From the beginning, MTS has already opened five outlets Samsung in Novokuznetsk, Voronezh, Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg. The average area of the salon is 50 sq m, which is comparable to the size of the regular cellular retail. The range includes about 400 items (priority in sales made on devices of the upper price segment).
“MTS will receive a quality channel for attracting new users of mobile Internet, can make money by selling accessories, the equipment configuration, additional commercial projects – insurance devices and property. In addition to the rates and services of the operator in the salons of Samsung will be available to products of companies in the MTS group (for example, the loans MTS-Bank)”, – said the representative of the operator.
“Samsung is interested in developing mono-brand stores in terms of outsourcing, primarily because this format allows you to increase the sales of devices and accessories (increase market share) due to savings on rent of premises (due to discounts MTS), the production of promotional materials, logistics, recruitment and training of personnel”, – said the head of Samsung Mobile in Russia Arkady Count. He explained that now in Russia operates about 200 branded stores Samsung.
Cooperation of MTS and Samsung in this format, analysts see as a new step in the “war” on the Russian market beginning in 2015. Then the control of the retail network “Svyaznoy” turned to Oleg Malis, the brother of the President of “Euroset” (competing patterns) Alexander Malis. “Euroset” in this case belongs to the “Beeline” and “MegaFon”.
After this, MTS has stopped cooperation with “Coherent” (cooperation with “Euroset” operator stopped the year before) and has concentrated on development of own retail network. MTS announced the formation of a “cartel” on the market and even tried to challenge in court a resolution issued by the FAS structures of Oleg Malis to buy “Coherent”.
For its part, “Beeline”, “MegaFon”, “Euroset” and “Svyaznoy” stopped sales of Samsung smartphones. The formal reason for this was the high marriage among Korean products, but according to unofficial versions, it became a “revenge” Samsung for cooperation with MTS in the development of the retail network of the operator. Thus, the opening MTS monobrand salons of Samsung can be seen as a step aimed to support the sales of the South Korean manufacturer under the circumstances.
