Christopher Beselin - Building a leading e-commerce company in Vietnam
-
Upload
tran-thanh-tan -
Category
Business
-
view
503 -
download
1
Transcript of Christopher Beselin - Building a leading e-commerce company in Vietnam
Chris B. Beselin - who am I?
2
Background
• Swedish national, living in Vietnam since 2012
• Educated in Stockholm and Beijing
• Background at one of Europe’s largest active ownership investment funds,Cevian Capital (AUM ca. 15 bnUSD). Retail company focus
• CEO of offline and online retail business in Sweden
• CEO & Co-founder of Lazada.vn
Today
• Founder & director of IT development company fram^ (team of IT engineers,ranked as top 2% of local talent pool)
• Also, Founding partner at Endurance Capital – active ownership in listedVietnamese companies with focus on consumer businesses
Agenda
3
Lazada.vn – how did we build it?
Lazada.vn – what is it?
What does the e-commerce opportunity in Vietnam look like?
Lazada.vn – what were key challanges?
Q&A
Lazada.vn – an overview
4
Main facts
• Founded in Feb 2012, site launched end or Mar 2012
• Tens of thousands of orders/day
• Over 1,000 staff locally in Vietnam (including regional tech hub for restof Lazada countries, also based in Vietnam)
• Main office on Hai Ba Trung, Ho Chi Minh City, additional offices anddelivery hubs all over Vietnam
• Started out as an inventory-based ‘traditional Amazon model’, now ismajority ’Marketplace-based e-commerce’
• Recently featured on techinasia.com’s list of global online companiesvalued between 1 - 5 billion USD
Agenda
7
Lazada.vn – how did we build it?
Lazada.vn – what is it?
What does the e-commerce opportunity in Vietnam look like?
Lazada.vn – what were key challanges?
Q&A
Early days…
8
“Ecommerce will not work in Vietnam – people here like to touch and feel… ”
• Ramping up from 1 to 350 employees in 4 months…
Marketplace
10
Shifting the market leader from Amazon to Alibaba
• We got everything wrong – so we changed like humble work ants…
Mobile
11
Why do Indian e-commerce players go mobile only?
• Don’t want to make same mistake as what is killing offline retail
• User is always logged in – a lot more user feedback and amazing data!
• Captivity is a balance
Agenda
12
Lazada.vn – how did we build it?
Lazada.vn – what is it?
What does the e-commerce opportunity in Vietnam look like?
Lazada.vn – what were key challanges?
Q&A
What do people get wrongabout online payments in Vietnam?
13
COD is not an obstacle, its an enabler!
• Isn’t it risky and expensive to run a >50 000 order / day e-commercecompany based almost entirely on cash payments (>90% COD)?
What does it take to build a robust logisticsbackbone?
14
• It only takes three simple things: Pay on time, deliver on time, report ontime…
• You need to set your own standards, then be ready and able to walk awayfrom underperforming partners
How can you trust 3rd party merchantsto sell through your platform?
15
• To allow anyone access to your platform & your customers is a scarymodel
• You need to be hands on – who are you really making business with?
• You need to have rock solid principles – 2 strikes your out!
Agenda
16
Lazada.vn – how did we build it?
Lazada.vn – what is it?
What does the e-commerce opportunity in Vietnam look like?
Lazada.vn – what were key challanges?
Q&A
20 million more Vietnamese online over past 5 yearsalone- that’s 2x my entire home country, in only 5 years!
17
0% 1% 2%4%
8%
13%
17%
21%
24%27%
31%
35%
40%
44%
48%
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
Vietnam internet penetration
Source: World bank
Is the challenge different today?
18
What does the landscape look like today?
• The bets that the big players are making are becoming BIGGER!
• Business is no longer about BIG eats SMALL, its about FAST eats SLOW
How to play and how to play to win?
• Like every venture: Start, but start small. Plan/dream BIGGER!
• You need to establish your ‘right to exist’ clearly from day 1 (e.g. a vertical niche)
• Keep a five year vision of change in market and consumer behavior. We will bethere in no time.
• Be hands on, YOU GO ON THE SITE, EVERY EVERY DAY!
The opportunity
19
Offline retail never had enough time to develop a proper footprint
• Modern retail is severely under developed
• General assortment choice has historically put a lid on consumption in ruralareas
• Shopping has historically been extremely inconvenient (multiple shops, busytraffic, etc)
This is the perfect backdrop for achieving a disproportionally high ecommerce penetration
• Similar / better than Chinese market conditions that allowed Alibaba to achievemore than explosive growth
• Not if, but how much more important ecommerce will be in VN than e.g. Europe
Agenda
20
Lazada.vn – how did we build it?
Lazada.vn – what is it?
What does the e-commerce opportunity in Vietnam look like?
Lazada.vn – what were key challanges?
Q&A