The Huawei phone price in Singapore is amongst the most expensive in the world. The Huawei P20 Pro is said to be the best smartphone on a Top Ten list recently, yet it is sold at a price that exceeds S$1,000.00 (one thousand dollars)
It was seen that different variants and colors of the same model have very different prices too. E.g., A yellow variant of the P10 Plus costs $769 while another variant with no difference or with some differences costs less than $650. There are also many online websites advertising heavily discounted prices for new models, which may entice buyers to purchase immediately if they do not research other pricing options from local retailers.
In discussions between technology reviewers and Huawei staff, it was revealed that local consumers have to pay much higher prices for Huawei phones than international customers due to rents of properties at Sentosa. There are only two places where businesses can operate on the island – either on level 1 or 2 of their buildings. Huawei has chosen the cheaper shop on level 2, which means all their products shipped from China must travel through warehouses and come through customs before they reach its retail stores in Singapore. This means more complicated and costly logistics than neighboring countries like Malaysia, which costs less to ship goods into and out.
Huawei’s marketing director also mentioned that shipping charges are quite wasteful as most of them are charged by weight (kg) instead of the actual number of pieces of the same model. A customer may think that a phone costs more than it does if they do not consider that different variants and colors of the same model have very different prices.
For example, a luxurious black P20 Eclipse with 128GB storage is sold at $999, while its standard gold variant sells at only about $735 for the same product. Some customers have also discovered that some Huawei phones are cheaper in Europe even though they are produced there and must travel back to their region before being shipped to Singapore. The products will then be sent locally again, which means another round of transportation costs.
Huawei launched an online campaign on 23 July 2018 for all .com.sg addresses, asking users why they think the prices of Huawei phones are so high in Singapore. The results gathered from this campaign revealed that over 95% of consumers believe that the prices are too costly to be justified by comparing them with similar models sold in foreign countries and local retailers and the value-added services provided by Huawei, such as its financing schemes.
One customer also mentioned that she was not surprised when some customers went online to negotiate discounted prices for their P20 Pro, including an example where a regular customer of China Mobile Singapore negotiated a discount price down to $800! Although this is a very extreme case that may only occur once in a while, it demonstrates how much bargaining power customers can wield if they search long enough for their desired product.The organized online campaign made Huawei realize that their customers have grown weary of the Huawei phone price in Singapore, which is not reasonable to them and has resulted in poor sales. This caused the company to introduce a new pricing scheme on 15 October 2018, bringing down prices of Huawei phones sold at retail stores by up to 50% or offering a $100 cashback for P20 series models purchased. Customers can now purchase an imported P30 Pro from China Mobile Singapore’s outlets on Orchard Road at $979 instead of paying $1299 at launch. The adjusted prices may attract more consumers as it is fairer than before, with fewer price disparities between different variants and colors.