TopZone: Why did Apple shake hands with Mobile World?

At the launch event of TopZone on October 16, Mr. Doan Van Hieu Em – CEO of two chains The Gioi Di Dong and Dien May Xanh shared: “By shaking hands with Apple, we launched the store. TopZone with the expectation of giving customers a more enjoyable shopping experience than Apple’s product lines.”

It can be considered that this combination between The Gioi Di Dong – a technology retail tycoon in Vietnam and Apple is a win – win (win-win) partnership. Both can rely on each other’s advantages to boost market share and increase revenue in one of the most exciting markets in Southeast Asia.

How is Apple doing business in Vietnam?

According to data from GfK, Vietnam’s smartphone market is currently holding a size of about 3 billion USD. Statistics also show the potential of the smartphone market when it holds the 10th position globally in terms of the number of users.

In the entire smartphone market, Apple currently holds 8.4% of the market share, ranking in the top 5 best-selling smartphone brands in Vietnam in March 2021. Although only ranked 5th in market share, Apple is dominating the high-end smartphone segment. According to statistics from GfK, iPhone 12 Pro Max is the top high-end smartphone model in the list of 10 best-selling phones in Vietnam in early 2020.

Looking back a few years ago, data from GfK shows that in March 2019, two giants Apple and Samsung accounted for 99.2% of the high-end mobile market share in Vietnam. Of which, 42.8% belonged to Apple and 56.4% belonged to Samsung.

Currently, besides Apple and Samsung, the high-end smartphone market in Vietnam has become more vibrant with the appearance of a series of names such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Sony. Even so, Apple is still a prominent name.

Occupying a significant market share in Vietnam, but so far Apple has not opened an Apple Store in Vietnam, while foreign brands such as Xiaomi, Huawei or Samsung all own a certain number of their own stores, in addition to the major retailers. other authorization.

Currently, Apple is only maintaining mono brand stores in a modest number and is not updated according to Apple’s latest design standards.

This inadvertently puts Apple at a disadvantage when competing with other brands in the Vietnamese market. It is easy to see that despite being in the top 5 for many years, Apple’s position has not changed. Meanwhile, smartphone manufacturers from China and South Korea share the top, respectively.

On the other hand, the supply of genuine iPhones in the Vietnamese market currently accounts for 60%, according to a survey from Tomorrow Marketers. That means that the remaining 40% of products are handmade.

A large floating source of portable goods can negatively impact Apple’s brand and reputation for quality products. While the number of stores specializing in Apple products is still relatively low, and the number of high-end stores for users to experience the standard Apple purchasing method is even lower.

With the above holes, it is clear that there is still a lot of room for Apple to continue to gain market share and increase sales in Vietnam. Especially with the strength of the brand and the trend of developing a wide range of products over the years, Apple is completely capable of competing fairly with the names in the No. 1 and No. 2 positions in the market. What Apple lacks in Vietnam is an authorized distribution system strong enough and reputable enough to fill that gap. And Mobile World is a potential partner.

Why Mobile World?

Cooperating with Apple to distribute products is not a new business model in Vietnam. Before Mobile World, many other retailers have also taken this step, but with a very slow implementation progress. For example, a retailer has cooperated with Apple to open an exclusive store selling Apple products since 2012, but up to now, this unit has only deployed 15 points of sale.

Particularly this time with Mobile World, this can be said to be an unprecedented cooperation move of the Cupertino technology giant. This is a high-level authorization model with the same standards as the Apple Store from business products to store design.

According to the sharing from Mobile World, the plan was discussed from August 2021 and very quickly, less than two months, both sides decided to put 4 stores into operation on October 22. The target is at the latest in the first quarter of next year, completing 60 points of sale for the TopZone chain – an unprecedented number of Apple for a market like Vietnam.

“Behind the launch of the TopZone brand is a whole process. To form the TopZone ecosystem in Vietnam with a large scale and strict standards from website to store, only Mobile World can do it. “, the company leader shared.

Understandably, with its experience and position as a retail tycoon of technology products in Vietnam with more than 2,700 stores nationwide, Apple can completely trust its top-notch products to Mobile World. Motion.

According to published information, when buying at TopZone, customers will enjoy a warranty and return policy at more than 2,700 points of sale of Mobile World. For example, customers can buy goods at Topzone, and exchange warranties at all stores of The Gioi Di Dong and Dien May Xanh.

All the highest-end Apple products are sold at this chain. On the other hand, the entire sales and customer care processes are trained according to Apple’s standards.

Talking about the expectations for this cooperation with Apple, the leader of The Mobile World confided: “Currently, in some developed countries, there are quite a few Apple Store stores, these are stores created by Apple Stores. Apple owns and operates it. Vietnam and many Southeast Asian countries still do not have an Apple Store. However, Vietnam has a large number of customers who love the Apple brand, this is the main reason why Mobile World wants to. bring this authorization model to Vietnam so that customers have a shopping space and experience in accordance with Apple standards.”