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Jasper Hart
August 12, 2020
Stores vital to educating customers about Huawei Mobile Services and growing ecosystem
Huawei is looking at building more Experience Stores beyond the three it announced last month, as it continues to value the UK consumer market despite the recent blows to its infrastructure business.
Huawei’s UK Consumer Business Group managing director Anson Zhang said that the manufacturer was looking at locations around the country to open more stores.
Last month Huawei announced a £10 million investment in three new stores, just days after being excluded from the UK’s 5G infrastructure. The first would open in Stratford in October 2020, followed by a second in Manchester in February 2021 and a third in London later next year.
Speaking to Mobile News, Zhang confirmed that Huawei would look to open more stores.
“I can confirm in the future we will see more stores opening, and we have been continuously looking for new locations, not only in London but also in other cities,” he said.
“The decision around 5G infrastructure will not impact our strategy commitment and determination for the consumer business in the UK market. [Consumers] will see more and more innovative products in the UK market from Huawei like the Mate 40. We will not make any compromises.”
Ecosystem
Zhang said the new stores would be important to give consumers direct experience of Huawei Mobile Services as its device ecosystem continues to grow. In China, it is now the market share leader in the premium (>RMB5,000) PC segment, and ranked number three for wireless earphones, according to Zhang.
Huawei wants to increase awareness of its 1+8+N strategy, which denotes the connection between smartphones (1), connected devices (8), and the layer of connectivity through Huawei HiLink (N).
“We already stand to be an ecosystem provider, we just need to advertise it more in the western world,” he said.
Despite Huawei recently becoming the world’s number one smartphone vendor ahead of Samsung, its sales in Europe have declined due to a combination of the Covid-19 pandemic and negative public perception of the brand.
According to figures from IDC, Huawei shipped 379,000 smartphones in the UK Q2 2020, a decline from 706,000 the previous year, including those from sub-brand Honor. However, it maintained its third place position.