Smartphone online retail channel sales will account for 28% of total global smartphone sales in 2020, up from 24% in 2019, according to a new research report from Strategy Analytics.
The new coronavirus outbreak is having a major impact on smartphone distribution - home isolation and social distance are forcing consumers to change their shopping habits and behaviors.
The global epidemic is rewriting the rules of smartphone sales as more and more businesses move online, the report says.
Boris Metodiev, associate director at Strategy Analytics, said the world's existing More than a quarter of all smartphones are sold online. During the epidemic, smartphone buyers have started buying online.
As global smartphone sales began to move online, online-only retailers (e.g., Amazon in the U.S., India's Flipkart and China's JD.com) have emerged as winners, Metodiev said.
Direct online sales from smartphone makers such as Apple's online marketplace will also see strong growth in mature markets, he added.
Strategy Analytics director Sui Qian said that companies such as UK-based Dixons' Smartphone retailers such as Carphone, which have a large number of brick-and-mortar stores, are not having a good time - due to the epidemic, they're Passenger traffic has plummeted and their sales and profits have been hit hard as a result.
Mobile operators such as AT&T in the United States and Telia in Sweden will also be negatively impacted, as most of them have been hit by the drop in traffic. Smartphone sales are in physical stores and rely on face-to-face interaction with sales reps.
Mobile operators selling smartphones may have to find another way and restructure or close many of their offline retail stores in the coming years, Sui Qian said.
