Two years after exiting China, the Motorola brand is back, this time selling its smartphones via the web.
Chinese consumers can order Motorola Moto X, Moto X Pro and Moto G Android smartphones through Motorola’s new e-commerce site, Motorola.com.cn, and from several Motorola storefronts on such major Chinese online marketplaces as Tmall.com, JD.com, Gome.com.cn, Suning.com and Dixintong.com, Motorola Mobility LLC announced at a recent press conference in Beijing.
Motorola, at one time a popular mobile phone brand in China, stopped selling in China in 2013, a year after it was acquired by Google Inc. Google sold Motorola’s smartphone business in 2014 to Chinese personal computer manufacturer Lenovo for $2.9 billion.
“I bought my first mobile phone from Motorola,” Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said at the news conference. “Now the Moto smartphones are more dynamic and offer many options to consumers.”
Motorola has introduced six versions of the Moto X phone, featuring colors and materials by Chinese online shoppers in surveys.
Motorola says it spent 88 days revamping its Chinese e-commerce site. Motorola didn’t provide details on the technology it is using. But according to web analysis site Builtwith.com, which analyzes the technology used on web sites, Motorola.com.cn was built with e-commerce software from U.S.-based vendor Demandware Inc.
Motorola says it will add what it calls the Moto Maker feature to its Chinese site in the first half of 2015, enabling consumers to customize their phones with more than 1,000 appearances and hardware options.
Like Chinese smart phone vendor Xiaomi, Motorola says it aims to build strong online connections with Chinese consumers. More than 690,000 consumers already follow the company on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
The move into China is part of Motorola’s global expansion plans. Although Motorola didn’t disclose its sales, the company says it now sells in 51 markets, up from 10 markets a year ago, and that its sales doubled in 2014.
Xiaomi is No. 3 in the Internet Retailer 2014 China 500 and Lenovo is No. 44.
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