MWG eyes 50 pct wristwatch market share next year

Doan Van Hieu Em, CEO of The Gioi Di Dong Joint Stock Company, said by the end of this year his company would have 30 per cent of the watch retail market share, and the figure would rise to 50 per cent by June 2020.

"We plan to have 200 shops by the end of 2019 and 500 by June 2020, and we target selling three million units next year," a company release quoted him as saying.

For the retailer, famous for its successful thegioididong.com and dienmayxanh.com chains, the goal is "eminently achievable" as has been proved by the firm's results during the six months since it started this new business.

After starting to sell watches in March, MWG’s achievements were beyond expectations, the release said. Specifically, it has around 100 shops each of which sell 500-700 watches a month, equivalent to revenues of $30,000-45,000.

In September the company sold 50,000 watches to achieve a 15 per cent share of the market.

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

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

He said the success of dienmayxanh.com and thegioididong.com has 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 its 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.

The firm said 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 help address customers’ pain points like fake products and high prices. In other words, it is thus easily able to offer customers authentic products at reasonable prices.

It 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 recognize 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 the 100 biggest in Asia. It distributes mobile phones, consumer electronic products, groceries, FMCG, and now watches.

The $75-million Vietnamese wristwatch market has enormous potential due to growing demand, but has for a long time been plagued by fakes and wildly inconsistent prices.