Struggling to survive in an online world
Instead of opening e-commerce floors in the old way, some businesses have tried new solutions to develop online sales to avoid repeating the same mistakes made by their predecessors.
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Most recently, Lingo.vn in August announced closure as the investor has stopped providing capital after many years of taking losses.
In the second half of 2015, a series of well-known websites such as Beyeu.com, Foodpanda.vn and Deca.vn either shut down or were sold to other investors.
In early 2016, Lazada Vietnam was transferred to Alibaba following a $1 billion deal and Zalora Vietnam was sold to Central Group.
Tran Trong Tuyen, CEO of DKT Technology, a firm that develops online sale platform, said the main reason behind their failure was that they had poor business plans and badly managed their business.
An analyst commented that in e-commerce, businesses can only exist and ‘live peacefully’ if they can cooperate with each other in an ecosystem, between B2C or C2C floors and online payment services.
Therefore, other firms, in order to exist in a competitive market, have to try new solutions to develop their business instead of following the same path on which their predecessors failed.
A branding expert noted that businesses now tend to join forces with partners to take full advantage of media companies, publishers, retailers and distributors to set up new-style online trading floors.
By doing this, they can obtain existing customers who regularly access to online newspapers, social networks or forums.
VnExpress, an online newspaper, in cooperation with FPT Trading, a distributor of high-technology products, recently launched VnExpress Shop.
The new business model takes full advantage of the good supply of FPT Trading, a distributor of genuine products, and the large custom brought by VnExpress’ readers.
The Gioi Di Dong (MWG), known in Vietnam as the largest mobile phone distribution chain, has announced its plan to make heavy investments in e-commerce in the third quarter of the year.
MWG has launched vuivui.com, a website which sells products at its retail shops on Thegioididong.com, Dienmayxanh.com and Bachhoaxanh.com.
MWG’s president Nguyen Duc Tai said besides expanding retail shops, MWG would focus on online sales this year. As such, MWG intends to develop B2C (business to customer) trading floors like the ones developed by Lazada, Sendo and Tiki. However, MWG has a great advantage that it has many years’ experience in traditional retail and may get support from manufacturers.
Meanwhile, other businesses tend to target many different groups of customers. They both run B2C trading floors, offering high-quality products to high income earners, and open C2C floors, targeting middle- and low-income earners.
