Somehow this news slipped under my radar, thankfully a friend of mine on Twitter sent the tip off.
The Xiaomi store that opened in Westfield has closed it’s doors for the final time closing down the retail unit for people to purchase their products in person.
Xiaomi UK are quoted as saying..
This adjustment to our local retail strategy is a reaction to our fast growing business in Western Europe. Since our official arrival in the UK over one year ago, we have loved building relationships with our users, Mi Fans and partners and thank them all for their support.
UK users and Mi Fans can continue to purchase Xiaomi products through our official website mi.com/uk and other official channels that will be announced along with our product launches in the future.
For many people the Xiaomi store was a great place to visit with a similar feel to Apple stores, but with a wide range of products from mobile phones to scooters and toothbrushes.
This news comes as a disappointment as I was personally hoping to visit the store in the next few days…..until I heard this.
Although Xiaomi are new in the UK market, they have been around for ages and already a high player, mainly in their home market of China.
Having reviewed a few of their devices and having Mi Mix 3 5G as my own main device, they make some fantastic hardware at very reasonable price.
All is not lost though, if you do want to get hands on a Xiaomi product in the UK you can always order online for delivery, however that comes with some warning though after some recent events where customers who have ordered have had parcels go missing or empty boxes down to the courier who delivers from their Paris office according to TrustPilot.
This is not everyone though as I have known many people order from them and get the parcel within the normal 5 day delivery time.
Either way it is a shame the UK has lost a retailer with a difference and forced people to go back online instead of shopping in person.