ShopDunk CEO Dung Doan: 'Vietnamese people love Apple but have not received a worthy response'

During the conversation that lasted more than 2 hours, what impressed me most about the 8X CEO of the system with more than 60 authorized Apple stores in Vietnam was his passion. He passionately talked about the "dream" of improving the shopping experience of Apple fans in Vietnam in unprecedented ways or how ShopDunk, from a name that not many people know, has strongly "competed" with domestic retail "giants".

I was also attracted by the large words “Inspire Your Life” placed on the wall of the meeting room. Dung shared that he wanted to “inspire” young Vietnamese people to use technology products and apply them to their lives, creating more value. “If you buy a MacBook for $1,000 but only use $200 of its value, that is a waste. What ShopDunk does is help you make the most of that $1,000,” CEO Dung Doan said about the difference that ShopDunk wants to create compared to other retailers.

Doan Viet Dung studied Accounting at the Academy of Finance, then found a scholarship and studied abroad in Canada. Returning to Vietnam after 4 and a half years of studying abroad, he started his first company in 2014. How did his love for Apple come about? My love for Apple originated from Steve Jobs' speech at Stanford University (USA). This was also one of the first videos I used to learn English. This video changed my thinking and perception to some extent. Steve Jobs is a character that inspires me. What he said and what he did always have a strong influence. After that, I listened to Simon Sinek's talk about the Golden Circle. All the stories revolved around the success of Apple. From then on, I fell in love with Apple products even more. I myself started using iPhone since the iPhone 3G when I was in school in 2008. However, the event that had the biggest impact on me was when Steve Jobs passed away. I witnessed the image of people going to all Apple Stores to leave flowers and write messages on many pieces of paper. Indeed, I was extremely impressed why a business company could do something with such a great influence. From there, I learned more about Apple's core values ​​and a person like Steve Jobs - a technology monument of the world .

How did that love affect your business decisions later? From loving the product, loving the cultural values ​​that Apple brings, I wanted to bring that love back to Vietnam. After returning to Vietnam, every year I witnessed people going to Singapore to line up in long lines, I myself was like that, lining up to be the first to own the latest iPhone. There were years when I had to eat and sleep outside the store, staying up for 48 hours just to buy a phone. What surprised and impressed me the most was that the majority of people lining up were Vietnamese, accounting for 50-60%. I wondered why Vietnamese people love Apple so much but have to suffer so much. At that time, the goal in my mind was how to bring Apple products and services to Vietnamese consumers. That is why the Apple ShopDunk authorized store chain has grown rapidly from 12 to 60 stores in just the past 2 years. My next goal is to convince Apple to launch iPhone products at the same time as the Singapore and US markets. That way, Vietnamese people will not have to wait in line anymore and can buy the latest Apple products in Vietnam at the same time as other A-class countries in the world, contributing to raising the Vietnamese market to a higher level.

How did the decision to buy back the ShopDunk brand affect you? The decision to buy ShopDunk was really 'risky'. At that time, ShopDunk had a pretty bad reputation and had a lot of bad feedback. All my relatives and friends discouraged me, I was the only one determined to buy. The reason for buying ShopDunk was because I personally did not have enough experience in the retail sector. I had never worked for a company in the retail sector and did not understand anything about the retail industry. The reason for buying back ShopDunk was because they had an existing retail structure and system that was already operating, enough for me to gradually learn and take advantage of. But honestly, when I started taking over in 2016, it took me a lot of time to change the mindset of everyone in the ShopDunk organization at that time. It took a lot of time to convert to a professional and methodical business model that prioritized customer experience. But I was also very happy because when I followed that direction and was determined to do it to the end, everyone below supported me. As a result, in August 2020, ShopDunk became one of the five largest Apple Authorized Resellers in Vietnam.

How did you convince Apple to invest in ShopDunk when Mono Store was not successful in Vietnam? ShopDunk is not the first unit in Vietnam to do Mono Store. Before that, there was a big unit that did it and that project was not really successful in the eyes of customers. When looking at the number of customers coming in and out, I can somewhat evaluate it. If it was not successful, then convincing Apple to continue investing in the Mono project is a difficult story. Apple invested in Vietnam and it was not successful, so a ShopDunk guy who was almost a newbie naturally said that he could do Mono Store. Everyone, especially Apple, was skeptical. They even tried to convince me that "don't do it anymore because this model failed in Vietnam". But I firmly replied "no, just give me another chance". I understand exactly that the story of Mono Store does not stop at the beautiful store image. The real important thing is behind it. Those are the operators, the soul of the company. This is the most important value of Mono Store. When you come to the global Apple Store, when you step in, what attracts and pulls you in is the beautiful space, but what keeps you there is the people, the comfort and the friendliness. Therefore, I know the reason for failure is not the failed model but the operation behind it. The most difficult thing is to ask Apple to reactivate Mono Store in Vietnam. For ShopDunk, it was a whole process and took up to 6 months, convincing and convincing again so that they could trust the Mono Store model in Vietnam once again.

To develop Mono Store, how difficult is it to change the mindset of the staff? Apple's standards are very high. When implementing a Mono Store, they calculate the standard in millimeters, not centimeters. The distance from the wall to the shelf is also calculated in mm, if there is only a 2 mm deviation, the wall must be demolished and redone. The same goes for the signboard, if the logo that the construction unit places is 2 mm wrong from the drawing, the entire sign must be removed and replaced with a new one. My biggest difficulty is that the people below have never done Mono Store before. They do not understand Apple's mindset of why it has to be so strict. The same goes for Marketing, the Vietnamese market is used to doing things wrong, doing things unprofessionally. Apple never uses the trick of spreading rumors and is always number one in security. Now that there is an iPhone 14, it is impossible to know what the iPhone 15 will be like, that is taboo in Apple. However, in Vietnam, retailers consider it very normal, every store posts information, even lists it on the website. They did not understand why they were not allowed to post such information. The hardest part for me was answering the questions “Why?”, why we had to follow the rules that Apple set out, from marketing, location, to retailers. I had to explain to each person the specific reasons why they should do that. I was glad that everyone then understood and happily complied. For many people, 2mm is almost unnoticeable for such a small change, on a large board of about 20 m2, 2mm/20m2 has no value to the naked eye. However, for Apple, the story is “standard is standard”.

That's when it comes to construction, so what about operation? Apple's construction standards are strict, and its operating standards are also extremely strict. What can be displayed in this location, how many items, and what content customers can experience are all guided and required to be followed to the letter. Apple is very strict in such matters. With supermarket-style retail systems (Multibrand), in the eyes of everyone, it is the retailer's brand, but when looking at Mono Store, it is looking at Apple's image. Therefore, the mission and responsibility of Mono Store is very large, requiring ShopDunk to always be meticulous and ensure everything operates perfectly.

Competing with TGDĐ and FPT is like competing with a giant. What does ShopDunk have in hand? ShopDunk's guiding principle from the beginning until now is only encapsulated in one phrase: "customer experience". Currently, ShopDunk has not reached the point we expected and we continue to strive to achieve our goal. ShopDunk will redefine the customer experience. We want to aim for all ShopDunk employees to be Apple experts, accompanying customers to help them take advantage of all the optimal features of Apple products. Because ShopDunk specializes in Apple, our staff only needs to learn one product, one brand. That is an advantage for in-depth development. For example, we have a team specializing in Mac (Apple's computer line). They can guide you on how to use photo editing software like PhotoShop on MacBook effectively, not just advise customers on prices and promotions like other shops. I think that now sales consultants do not need to focus on that issue anymore because that information has been fully and clearly communicated on the website. If you like drawing, ShopDunk will have someone to guide you on how to draw on the iPad, how to use it with the Apple Pencil or which applications are best. Most people have not taken full advantage of the features because many people buy Apple products for very basic things, such as iPhone for calling, texting, surfing social networks, MacBook for surfing the web and using office applications with simple operations despite choosing high configuration. Those are very wasteful, that is why ShopDunk wants to be the one to reorient the market and guide consumers. The customer service of retailers in Vietnam is currently good. But ShopDunk wants to bring a higher level, which is providing customer experience. It still includes customer service, but ShopDunk believes that "How you experience your product after purchasing it is the most important thing". For example, if you buy a MacBook for $1,000, right? You have to use it to make it worth the $1,000 you spent, and you can’t just use $200, which would be a waste of the remaining $800. In other words, we want to accompany our customers, take advantage of and maximize the product’s features.

Currently, the specialized mobile store model is increasingly "dominating" in Vietnam. Apple and Samsung continuously open specialized stores (Mono Store) to serve customers. What do you think about this new trend? When studying countries around the world, my opinion is that developing countries tend to follow developed countries, because they have a long history of consumption. For example, the US has 3 main retail models for the ICT industry. One is Mono Brand specialized retail, two is the model of collaborating with network operators and three is the hypermarket model. They are very successful with those 3 models, and at the same time have Multibrand stores but they are not really outstanding. In the region, we have Thailand and Singapore, the most prominent retail chain is Mono Brand. Returning to the Vietnamese market, the most dominant model is the Multibrand model. I am confident that in the future, Vietnam will follow the direction of Singapore or the US. In addition, I discovered a new trend that all major manufacturers are changing from just producing phones to expanding the production of an entire ecosystem. For example, Apple has iPhone, MacBook, Apple Watch, iPad, ... and is preparing to release new products every year. Similar to other brands, such as Samsung, Xiaomi, manufacturers are actively expanding the ecosystem. Previously, in a store, a lot of brands had to be sold because there were not enough product lines to sell a single brand in a store, which could not guarantee operating costs. But now the story is different, when expanding, you have enough product lines, enough ecosystem to do business in a single store. When researching the market, I also noticed that young people today, especially GenZ, love and hate everything very clearly. It's as simple as drinks, some like Pepsi, some like Coca. That's simply a habit, and it's even higher in our ICT industry, young people who like Samsung only like Samsung, similar to other brands like Xiaomi, Apple. Young people do not like to enter a space that has things they do not like there. They only like to have their own brand that they love and are less likely to be swayed because they have very clear opinions. This trend has a great impact on the market. In short, I have absolute faith that Mono Brand will be the upcoming market trend, and it will happen faster than I expected. Before in 2020, I thought it would be about 5 years, but now I see this trend coming sooner.

Apple often mentions Vietnam as a potential and key market in Asia, in the future there may be more authorized dealers, the cake is being torn apart, what do you think you have to compete in this war? The Vietnamese market is very explosive, dynamic and I feel it is much more dynamic than other countries in the region. I am very happy that small domestic retailers are gradually becoming authorized dealers. This is extremely positive information for the Vietnamese market. However, with ShopDunk, the story of how to compete and continue to make a difference from the rest of the market has a direction. We only focus on one thing, which is "customer experience". And I think that is quite a difference because the core is people and is supported by technology. Surely in the near future we will have many more different things, besides expanding the number of shops with the goal of 3 times growth compared to last year. ShopDunk wants to develop deep in each store and deep in each employee. That will be the thing that makes the most difference compared to the rest of the market.

It seems that in the recent iPhone 14 handover, you guys made a strong impression on Apple? On October 13, ShopDunk organized an event to open sales/return genuine iPhone 14 on an unprecedented scale. We welcomed more than 1,000 customers and returned the goods within just 2 hours with a huge quantity. The highlight of the program was the delivery by 14 flycams. Not stopping at just opening sales and returning goods like most other systems, ShopDunk wants customers to enjoy every moment as comfortable and happy as possible during the waiting time from 7:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. They enjoyed exciting games right at the event such as apple picking, virtual reality games and lucky draws to receive valuable gifts such as AirPods 2, Apple accessories... In addition, iFans can also freely refurbish their iPhones at customer service counters such as phone cleaning, case painting, screen protectors... The highlight of the event is starting from 10:00 p.m. on October 13, 2022 and lasting until 2:00 a.m. on October 14, 2022. For the first time in the world, iFans had iPhone 14 delivered by flycam at exactly 0:00 to 1414 customers. Everyone felt "wow why do Vietnamese people love Apple so much". Actually, we have not just fallen in love now, but we have loved it for many years, but the way Apple responds to the Vietnamese market is almost zero. And ShopDunk is here to help customers experience the best.

You are a die-hard Apple fan, what advantages does “love to come” – loving Apple so selling Apple products bring to you? Steve Jobs' famous quote: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” Firstly, I think if I didn't love it, I would have given up during many difficult times in the past. Secondly, if I didn't love it, I wouldn't be able to bring the core values ​​of the product to consumers. In business, making money and selling products is enough, and we may not care about how you use the product afterwards. But with ShopDunk, we really want to not only provide Apple products and services, but also convey Apple's core culture and ideology, which is the ideology of working, thinking differently, doing differently: "Think Different". That is what will last and benefit society. Is that the reason why you recently opened a store with a very special brocade style? When Apple goes to regions and countries, they really respect the culture there. ShopDunk always has the idea of ​​combining modern things, bringing Apple technology combined with traditional Vietnamese features to promote. ShopDunk cannot do all stores because Mono Store must follow Apple's global standards that cannot be changed. However, ShopDunk wants to bring the values ​​and unique beauty of Vietnam to consumers. For example, brocade, ceramic, bamboo, etc. Apple still allows the sale of third-party products to Mono Store. So I really want to collaborate with Vietnamese creators to create phone cases and accessories made from traditional materials, typical of Vietnam such as bamboo... Because that is the best way to promote the image of Vietnam to the world and also has the unique style of ShopDunk.

What is your opinion on contributing and serving the country ? In your opinion, what should young people do to develop a better Vietnam? In my opinion, developing the country and serving the country are two things that should go together. Personally, up to now, I have enough food and clothing every day, what I want most is to be able to create jobs for many people. I want to bring as much of the latest technology to Vietnam. And more importantly, how can all Vietnamese people access that technology, use that technology to improve the quality of life and quality of work. This is the mission that ShopDunk has been, is and will continue to do on the path of serving Vietnamese users, serving Vietnam. As for young people today, you are being exposed to culture quite early and have a very good orientation, much earlier than I was before. I believe that Vietnam’s Next Generation will always have their own thoughts: As a child with Vietnamese blood, they must have a duty and responsibility to the country. In particular, one of the cores of that duty is how to apply the most advanced and modern technologies to all work and make life more valuable and better. I have strong faith that the young people will be able to do it.

Article: Khanh Vy

Design: Hai An

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