Realme resumes e-commerce operations under government guidelines

India’s smartphone sales hit an all-time low in April 2020 with zero units shipped as the country went into lockdown. While the government has announced the extension of the lockdown, new guidelines have been issued to regulate different services based on red (hotspot), green and orange zone limitations.

Now, Realme has officially announced that it will resume e-commerce activities. The company’s official Indian website reads; “Adhering to the government’s revised directives, dated 01-05-2020, E-commerce activities are now allowed to resume for non-essentials in the Orange and Green Zones.”

Realme recently marked its second anniversary as India’s fourth-largest smartphone brand. The brand maintained the fastest growing speed in Q1 2020 with a year-on-year growth of over 119 percent as per Counterpoint. From 2019 to Q1 2020, the company has also maintained the second position after Xiaomi in the online smartphone segment. The brand also became the 4th largest premium smartphone brand in 2019, despite only launching one flagship (Realme X2 Pro) in the year in November.

The company said that “Realme” was originally inspired by Oppo’s “REAL ME” series with the model number A209 back in 2010. While you can now buy Realme phones on the company’s website, the company has raised prices of its handsets due to the recent GST hike. The recently announced Realme 6 series, Realme X50 Pro, Realme C3 as well as older Realme phones have all seen price hikes.

Realme’s upcoming Narzo series, which has already seen two launch delays, could also make a potential debut soon. The Realme Nazro 10 and Narzo 10A are expected to debut in the country’s under 10K smartphone market.