Fashion
Official Apple Vietnam retail stores have been appointed to receive stock directly from the California-based tech giant.
One official retailer is FPT Shop, which currently operates retail stores in Vietnam selling Apple products imported from other Asian countries and reselling them for as much as 50 per cent more than they can be bought in Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore. FPT has 220 stores in Vietnam.
The director general of FPT Shop, Le Bach Diep, announced at a press conference in Hanoi last week that her company would important iPhones and iPads directly from Apple. Apple Vietnam would receive new models at the same time as other ‘third ranked’ markets – assigned a lower priority than the US, Japan and China in the first group and Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore in the second.
She says that means new model Apple products will go on sale in Vietnam sooner after overseas release than before. In return, Apple gets a specialised after sales service network.
Meanwhile, rival chain The Gioi di Dong announced it would be sourcing Apple products direct from Apple from September – instead of having to import them through FPT Trading.
Neither company will be allowed to supply other dealers on a wholesale basis.
