Shoppers get angry after Xiaomi’s new Mi 9 smartphone sold out in seconds

Does Xiaomi’s flash sales strategy still work in China’s crowded market for cheap handsets?

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The Mi 9 was launched on the same day as the Galaxy S10 last week. (Picture: SCMP)

Published: 7:38pm, 5 Mar 2019Updated: 8:58am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Xiaomi smartphones are not officially sold in the US, so it's quite a challenge to buy one there. Sometimes, however, consumers in China also struggle to buy a Xiaomi handset.

How Xiaomi forged a unique path

Mi 9, the latest flagship smartphone from Xiaomi, went on sale in China last week, and reportedly sold out in less than 53 seconds. Another round of sales opened today, but consumers complained again about failing to buy the handset because the Mi 9 stock ran out in seconds.

Flash sales have long been a part of Xiaomi’s strategy. It is a tactic widely known as “hunger marketing”, in which Xiaomi makes available a limited number of smartphones for several rounds of sales. This approach would not only draw the attention of consumers, but also create the impression that a certain smartphone model is hard to get.

Lei Jun, co-founder and chief executive of Xiaomi, has repeatedly denied that the Beijing-based company’s flash sales strategy is a marketing stunt.

Apart from being a controversial way to keep consumers engaged and frustrated at the same time, flash sales have also backfired on Xiaomi. In the UK, for example, the company launched what it called a “crazy deals” promotion last November, in which its Mi 8 Lite smartphone was offered for £1 (US$1.32). It later emerged that only two to three units of that model were made available in each round of sales during the promotion, eliciting a backlash from disappointed shoppers.

Xiaomi had bet there will be no such controversies with the Mi 9, after Lei assured at the Mi 9 launch last month that it will “have plenty in stock” when sales start. His recent Weibo posts are now swamped with criticism from angry fans who failed to buy the handset.