OnePlus One Sales Figures Show More Than 1 Million Sales Last Year
OnePlus sales figures have revealed that their popular smartphone One sold close to one million units last year, a feat that surprised even the company itself.
Competition can be intense in the smartphone industry but OnePlus managed to hold on to its fair share of customers. It is a fact made apparent when Carl Pei, OnePlus co-founder and director shared their 2014 sales figures and stated that One nearly sold a million units.
"We basically weren't prepared for what happened," he said, claiming that they originally thought most of their sales will be towards the Chinese market only.
What makes the feat even more impressive to some is the knowledge that OnePlus managed to operate on an invite system and focused most of its advertising expenses on Facebook ads.
The company started an invite system which allowed buyers interested in the One handset to request a slot in their queue. After the sign-up orders were in place, handsets were made available in small batches. This resulted in not only a timely manufacturing process, but also stock control and a more cost-effective operation to prevent unnecessary expenses.
Not only that, but OnePlus cut out a lot of other expenses when it shelled out only $300 to experiment on different types of Facebook ads. Given the limited availability of it, word of mouth helped it gain more attention.
"We found that we've now reached critical mass of users, and they are helping us spread the word organically," Pei said.
The success is not without its pressures though, as Pei admitted that for 2015 they are now focusing on refining their customer service, product and operation.
"This period that we have now is a very good time for us to become a lot more professional," Pei said, especially as they have started working on the OnePlus Two smartphone, which is expected to come out in about six months.