Mobile World, the leading mobile phone retailer, has demonstrated its ample capabilities in watch distribution through swift expansion and robust sales from the get-go.

Mobile World started to experiment with the 'shop-in-shop' model by selling watches in March 2019. Since then, it has achieved significantly 15 percent of market share in the watch field. 

The total number of watches sold in September is to reach 50,000 units, beyond the expectations of both Mobile World and local distributors. Currently, local suppliers ran out of stocks for Mobile World, that made the retailer start buying product at original source to ease off dependence on middlemen. 

At present, the watch retail market in Vietnam is estimated to be worth more than VND 18 trillion ($777.48 million). However, the market is quite fragmented as there is no store chain taking a market share of more than 20 per cent. 

Market research Euromonitor International also forecasts Vietnam’s jewelry and watch retail market to grow a compound annual growth rate of 7 per cent between 2017-2021 and reach VND 43 trillion ($1.86 billion) in 2021. The growth of the market is driven by rising disposable income, optimistic Consumer Confidence index and 30 million millennials (ages 18-34) who increasingly seek products that express their ego. 

Plans to scale up

Since the first jump on the bandwagon, the Mobile World planned to shape it up with professional manner. The retailer offers consumers with affordable prices, thanks to the swift strategy to buy at source. The prices are affordable, policies for warranty and after-sales for consumers are strictly applied to ensure consumers’ benefit at most. 

Accordingly, the firm is set to open 100 stores by September 30 with sales reaching 50,000 watches this month. The chain will reach 200 outlets by this year end and sell 100,000 watches by December, bringing the total number of watches sold in the stores to 300,000 in 2019. It also targets to open 500 watch shops by the end of next June with the target of selling 2.5 million watches in the whole year.

Mobile World’s CEO Doan Van Hieu Em said “We still have much room to grow in this segment thus are open for any watch manufacturers who can build a long-term trusted partnership together,”

Known as Vietnam's leading retailer, Mobile World has been recognized as the only Vietnamese representative among the Top 100 Asia-Pacific Retailers voted by Retail Asia Magazine and Euromonitor, and among the top 50 best big listed companies by Forbes Asia (Asia’s Fab 50) and has been holding these titles for two consecutive years. The company is also a multi-award winner recognized by local organizations.