How to revive a traditional business leveraging digital tools

To Nghiep Sieu (Steven)

Hanh Sanh Co., Ltd

Vietnam

I'm the second generation for my family business. My father started the company with electric fans since 1996. Back in 2018, I graduated in the USA with a bachelor degree in a business administration. And then I got back to Vietnam and started to be involved in the family business.

At that time, everything was offline. Our electric fans were distributed through local channels to shops, and then to consumers. Electric fans sell by season. In tropical countries like Vietnam, we can only sell in hot season, and during rainy season the sales is close to zero. We need new markets. That’s why we started to look at e-commerce.

This happened right when Alibaba.com was trying to tap into Vietnam market. I remember getting invited to a conference with 1000 attendees. So, I was like, okay, let’s try with this platform and see what it can bring to the business.

Fishing out first order from spam fold

I persuaded my father to invest in 2,500 USD and get a membership, and joined with a channel partner to help set up my mini site and everything. The first order came within two months.

When you first got on the platform, the traffic was not like a lot, so I still had time to look at messages. One of the messages got into the spam folder, and that happened to by my first order on Alibaba.com. The customers must had sent too many inquiries to many different suppliers.

This inquiry turned out to be a very good one. The buyer was specific about the product and wanted more details, like how we could sell to them, so I contacted them. After talking to them for a while on Alibaba.com, they came to Vietnam and visited our factory. After that, they got 2 containers from us. Just this one order was enough for me to return on the investment of my payment for the account.

On the first year, we made around 150,000 USD from customers on Alibaba.com. We knocked on door to door of Asian markets. The first client was from Myanmar and the second was from Sri Lanka and then Cambodia. The way I do business with the first order is the way I do business with the second and the third. If I’m not on my computer, I am on my phone.

Luckily, we are enjoying a 20% yearly growth on Alibaba.com up until now.

Last year we made around $300,000 from Alibaba.com.

Expanding with Alibaba.com

We had only one factory before we got onto Alibaba.com. As our business grew online, we need more storage. So, we decided to make a branch of our factory specialized in making plastics. And then we added another factory for assembly. Our employees doubled correspondently, to 60 people, up and down.

Electric fans sell by season, so there are months when I am rated 3-star and there are months when I am 5. Since we have expanded the production line, we are also looking at products that are different from electric fans, let's say home appliances. My strategy is to invest more in the off season with new products so I can be more exposed.

“I got inspired speaking in front of a good 100 SMEs!”

I got invited to teach fellow sellers in Vietnam how to do live-streaming.

I livestreamed on Alibaba.com in 2020 during the Covid, when the online trade show got launched. I was one of the first enterprises doing that. I remember passing an interview and get to showcase my products and give factory tours via live-streaming. Livestreaming got us orders during the lockdown, so I didn’t have to lay off any employee.

Then, I got invited to teach fellow sellers in Vietnam how to do live-streaming.

0n that day, I remember it was a good 100 people coming to the training sessions. I got inspired. And I'm like, okay, I can do more, I can teach more, on other topics.

Up till now, I’ve shared with Malaysian and Singaporean SMEs in many sessions. I look forward to more opportunities.