Singaporean luxury beauty and lifestyle distributor Luxasia is making moves into Vietnam.

The brand will be targeting younger millennial consumers who are thought to be responsive to social media and social media influencers.

Luxasia Vietnam is focusing on the nation’s fast-growing economy and strong population of nearly 100 million. It currently offers 20 brands in the market, but is planning to introduce more incrementally. It also has designs on developing new distribution channels via small independent perfumeries, and building an e-commerce platform.

Luxasia’s regional MD Karen Ong said of the Vietnamese market potential for beauty products, “It is still very much big brands focused. People want to use something other people recognise.”​

Regarding the business climate, Ong commented: “In Singapore we take things for granted. We shake on it and we think it’s done and that everyone knows what to do. But there, you have to follow up and chase. There’s a lot of email back and forth. It reminds me of how we used to do business 10 to 15 years ago.”

“It’s still very relationship based, the speed is much slower, and even if you plan way in advance, things may not always execute the way you have planned. The follow up has to be very close and you have to be very prescriptive in the way things want to be done.”​