The US$75-million Vietnamese wristwatch market has enormous potential with huge and growing demand. But for a long time it has been plagued by fakes and wildly inconsistent prices. In the last six months signs of change have become evident with giant retailer The Gioi Di Dong (Mobile World) Joint Stock Company entering the market, targeting shakeout the market and become the leading watch retailer.

Mobile World, the biggest mobile phone and CE retailer in Viet Nam, recently announced its goal of becoming the No. 1 wristwatch retailer in Viet Nam by grabbing a 50 per cent market share by 2020.

Doan Van Hieu Em, CEO of The Gioi Di Dong Joint Stock said: “By the end of this year 30 per cent of the wristwatch market share in Viet Nam will be held by MWG and the figure will jump to 50 per cent by June 2020.

“We plan to have 200 shops by the end of 2019, and the number will rise to 500 by June 2020, and we target selling three million units next year.”

For the giant retailer MWG, famous for the successful thegioididong.com and dienmayxanh.com chains, the goal is eminently reachable, as has been proved by its results during the nine months since it started this new business.

After starting to sell watches in March, MWG’s achievements were beyond expectations: it has around 100 shops each of which sell 500-700 watches a month, equivalent to revenues of US$30,000-45,000. In September, the company sold 50,000 watches. This has helped Mobile World grab a 15 per cent market share.

“I believe that soon the watch market will be carved into two shares, one for Mobile World and one for the rest,” Hieu Em said.

“We are confident of achieving the goal because at Mobile World we never do things by halves, meaning when we have a dream we pursue it at any cost.”

The success of dienmayxanh.com and thegioididong.com has in fact taught MWG plenty about the retail market and helped it become competitive in the watch business.

Mobile World does not incur any additional costs when selling watches with the shop-in-shop model: it merely needs to install some cabinets to display watches at its 2,000 dienmayxanh.com and thegioididong.com stores which have footfall of 20,000 and 45,000 per month.

Tie-up with foreign providers

Mobile World told bizhub.vn it has started to tie up with foreign suppliers because no local importer or distributor can fully meet its needs.

The tie-ups not only mean Mobile World is not dependent on middlemen but also address customers’ pain points like fake products and high prices.

In other words, the company is easily able to offer customers authentic products at reasonable prices.

Currently, the company has so far signed deals with famous brands like Seiko, Citizen, Tissot, Michael Kors, Fossil, and Casio besides some Chinese brands.

A Casio spokesperson said: “We recognise Mobile World’s huge capacity in the wristwatch market and determination to succeed. Our company is going to have a strategic agreement with the company soon.”

Mobile World is one of the top retailers in the country and among the100 biggest in Asia.