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New Delhi: Smartphone brands are trimming marketing, offline sales and general administrative support teams as rising input costs and slowing overall sales push companies to cut costs and focus on profitability, industry experts said.
Staffing firms estimate up to 15% drop in commercial and corporate roles in recent months as brands shed administrative overhead built during the high-volume growth phases of previous years even as sustained premiumisation continues to support overall market value.
Also Read: Smartphone volumes may dip 5-7% in FY27; industry value to grow 8-10% amid higher device costs: ICEA
The headcount rationalisation is happening mainly in companies that rely on low-margin, high-volume entry-level segments, where sales have declined 8-10% over the last one year, according to Randstad India.
"As consumer footfalls lean heavily toward premium models and online/omnichannel platforms, large, localised marketing and field activation teams are being streamlined," Yeshab Giri, chief commercial officer for operational talent solutions at Randstad India, told ET. "We estimate that corporate and commercial headcounts have been optimised by roughly 12% to 15% over the last two quarters."
The impact is mostly on non-core and localised corporate functions such as traditional marketing, regional field-force operations, offline retail channel management, and general administrative support.
An industry analyst said companies are reducing sales, admin and general overhead expenses as the smartphone market moves toward significant brand consolidation.
"The consolidation has resulted in severe job cuts, such as the complete elimination of the offline expansion team at OnePlus - some 60 employees - leaving executives who were aggressively planning major expansions just months prior suddenly looking for work," the analyst said.
Staffing experts said Realme has also delegated management of state operations to distributor agents, and has asked over 50 area business managers to join the payroll of their agents. Field force operators from Xiaomi and Transsion are also impacted and many are looking for jobs, they said.
A Transsion spokesperson, however, denied reducing headcount. "In response to the current dynamic market environment, we are actively strengthening our on-ground teams and expanding our marketing capabilities to deepen consumer connect across India," the person said.
OnePlus, Realme and Xiaomi did not respond to emails seeking comments until press time on Friday.
TeamLease said smartphone brands are cutting back on frontline workforce, specifically third-party contract staff and promoter networks by 5-15% in certain regions where sales have slowed down.
"This reduction is driven by a lower tolerance for underperforming retail counters," said Balasubramanian A, senior vice president and business head at TeamLease. "While brands previously tolerated up to 15% underperformance during good times, that threshold has now dropped to single digits due to the broader market slowdown."
Also Read: It's the same old phone with a new name & fatter price tag
Industry executives said the headcount reduction comes amidst a calibrated alignment with market realities and is not a systemic collapse of the electronics ecosystem.
Brands are adopting leaner structures where employees take on significantly broader and fractional roles.
"We are routinely seeing product marketing professionals absorb brand communications portfolios, while regional sales leads are being mandated to manage multi-territory zones or bridge both online and offline distribution channels simultaneously," Randstad's Giri said.
There is a financial correction happening for incoming talent streams with variable pay components tied to much tighter performance metrics, he said, adding that the aggressive 40-50% salary hikes that characterised lateral hiring two years ago have corrected downwards by 15-20%.
Staffing firms estimate up to 15% drop in commercial and corporate roles in recent months as brands shed administrative overhead built during the high-volume growth phases of previous years even as sustained premiumisation continues to support overall market value.
Also Read: Smartphone volumes may dip 5-7% in FY27; industry value to grow 8-10% amid higher device costs: ICEA
The headcount rationalisation is happening mainly in companies that rely on low-margin, high-volume entry-level segments, where sales have declined 8-10% over the last one year, according to Randstad India.
"As consumer footfalls lean heavily toward premium models and online/omnichannel platforms, large, localised marketing and field activation teams are being streamlined," Yeshab Giri, chief commercial officer for operational talent solutions at Randstad India, told ET. "We estimate that corporate and commercial headcounts have been optimised by roughly 12% to 15% over the last two quarters."
The impact is mostly on non-core and localised corporate functions such as traditional marketing, regional field-force operations, offline retail channel management, and general administrative support.
An industry analyst said companies are reducing sales, admin and general overhead expenses as the smartphone market moves toward significant brand consolidation.
"The consolidation has resulted in severe job cuts, such as the complete elimination of the offline expansion team at OnePlus - some 60 employees - leaving executives who were aggressively planning major expansions just months prior suddenly looking for work," the analyst said.
Staffing experts said Realme has also delegated management of state operations to distributor agents, and has asked over 50 area business managers to join the payroll of their agents. Field force operators from Xiaomi and Transsion are also impacted and many are looking for jobs, they said.
A Transsion spokesperson, however, denied reducing headcount. "In response to the current dynamic market environment, we are actively strengthening our on-ground teams and expanding our marketing capabilities to deepen consumer connect across India," the person said.
OnePlus, Realme and Xiaomi did not respond to emails seeking comments until press time on Friday.
TeamLease said smartphone brands are cutting back on frontline workforce, specifically third-party contract staff and promoter networks by 5-15% in certain regions where sales have slowed down.
"This reduction is driven by a lower tolerance for underperforming retail counters," said Balasubramanian A, senior vice president and business head at TeamLease. "While brands previously tolerated up to 15% underperformance during good times, that threshold has now dropped to single digits due to the broader market slowdown."
Also Read: It's the same old phone with a new name & fatter price tag
Industry executives said the headcount reduction comes amidst a calibrated alignment with market realities and is not a systemic collapse of the electronics ecosystem.
Brands are adopting leaner structures where employees take on significantly broader and fractional roles.
"We are routinely seeing product marketing professionals absorb brand communications portfolios, while regional sales leads are being mandated to manage multi-territory zones or bridge both online and offline distribution channels simultaneously," Randstad's Giri said.
There is a financial correction happening for incoming talent streams with variable pay components tied to much tighter performance metrics, he said, adding that the aggressive 40-50% salary hikes that characterised lateral hiring two years ago have corrected downwards by 15-20%.
