NEW DELHI: Xiaomi will soon start selling its flagship phones in The Mobile Store’s brick-and-mortar outlets across India, supplementing the online-only sales model that China’s largest smartphone maker has relied on so far in the country.The Mi 4 and Redmi Note 4G models will be available for purchase at The Mobile Store, which will start selling the handsets at 55 stores in Delhi-NCR from Saturday at Rs 19,999 and Rs 9,999 respectively, the same prices as offered on Xiaomi’s online partner Flipkart “This will be the first time we’re getting into offline trade in India,” said Manu Jain, head of India operations at Xiaomi. “In China, about 20-30% of total sales come from telecom operators’ stores while the rest come from our online store – Mi.com,” he added. Like Bharti Airtel ’s stores, The Mobile Store will also act as a service centre for repairs, company chief executive Himanshu Chakrawarti said.The company will continue its association with Flipkart, where it will sell all models through weekly flash sales. Xiaomi recently launched the Redmi 2 - which will be sold on Flipkart from March 31. A Flipkart spokesperson said, “Brands sold on Flipkart are always welcome to explore alternative channels.”The Mobile Store, India’s largest mobile phone retailer with over 800 stores, will launch the phones in other cities as well, covering its top 300 stores across the country. Stores will have a live Mi Zone where customers will be able to look at and feel the devices, and buy them on the spot without waiting for the weekly flash sale.Xiaomi said the company expects the offline route to be successful and it may even look at scaling up the availability at brick-and-mortar stores, even as it continues to create its own retail store online.It is looking to set up Mi.com, a fullfledged e-commerce site which will sell all of the company’s products including TVs, routers and Xiaomi goodies for the Indian market. To take this forward, Xiaomi is exploring options including a model where Mi-.com can be franchised out, Jain had earlier told ET. Xiaomi is focusing on setting up its own research and development centre in Bengaluru, where, within a year, software for smartphones will be designed and meant for the Indian market.The company is also ramping up production in China, a move that will allow it to increase the number from about 100,000 units it sells a week through flash sales on Flipkart, to about five times that number. Jain added that high production may also permit Xiaomi to offer devices with ordinary sales online in the future.