Ex-Lazada duo focus on Vietnam with ecommerce enabler

After three years of growth in Vietnam, ecommerce enabler OnPoint is ramping up its business to capture more brands.

Founded by two former Lazada executives, the startup tells Tech in Asia that it’s in the process of raising up to US$10 million in series A funding to tighten its grip on its sole market, where it claims to be a top player.

The team / Photo credit: OnPoint

OnPoint is one of many enablers helping brands foray into ecommerce.

While the idea of selling to consumers via online channels sounds simple, the reality is just the opposite for brands.

They’d need to run and find ways to drive traffic to multiple sites, and then incentivize shoppers through different promos without undercutting offline retail partners, which are still important in driving overall sales. Brands would also need to provide costly logistics and payment options as well as item returns.

With OnPoint, they don’t have to worry about all those things, says co-founder and CEO Tran Vu Quang. Whether brands are selling on marketplaces like Lazada and Shopee, social media or their own websites, OnPoint takes care of the requirements for bringing the goods to customers’ doors, he says.

Where it all started

Quang and Le Xuan Long – previously the chief commercial and chief marketing officers of Lazada Vietnam, respectively – ventured out on their own in 2017 after seeing a wave of brands knock on the ecommerce firm’s doors, wanting to sell online.

It had just been a year since Alibaba acquired control of Lazada, and the China giant’s founder Jack Ma had shared in a discussion with staff that the business was going to be about “building a platform, not an empire.”

“It is about enabling others, not [ourselves]. It is about serving customers better, enabling businesses and partners, and even enabling competition,” Quang quotes Ma as saying.

Jack Ma talking to Lazada staff during a visit in 2016 / Photo credit: OnPoint

“Jack Ma’s philosophy transformed Lazada’s strategy from doing everything in-house to building an ecosystem of partners to support ecommerce growth,” he observes.

For decades, brands have dealt with brick-and-mortar retailers – their key link to shoppers. Those retailers mostly dictate the terms of how products are sold to consumers. But thanks to the rise of online shopping, brands now have the opportunity to be less reliant on middlemen.

Market focus