Zhang Jingdong, chairman of Chinese electronics retailer Suning Appliance disclosed lately that the company is considering removing the word ‘Appliance (or 电器)’ from its brand name, a potential move that highlights the company’s determined attempt to speed up its B2C effort as well as set its eyes beyond just electronics when it comes to Suning.com, its online subsidiary that competes with 360buy.com, Dangdang.com, Amazon.cn and Gome.com.cn, one of its arch rival on both the online and offline front.
Suning will be concentrating on its B2C business suning.com this year, aiming to become China’s Walmart plus Amazon, “(We) transferred about 20 execs to our ecommerce business, and added five new purchase & sales center taking care of books, household appliances, daily necessities and so forth”, said Zhang.
As of now, you can buy electronics, male and female apparel, cosmetics, books and even recharge your mobile phone through Suning.com. The service is targeting a sales of more than RMB 30 billion by year end, which is a huge leap from last year’s total sales of RMB 5.9 billion.
Suning pulled in a profit of RMB 4.82 billion (up 20% yoy) on revenue of RMB 93.89 billion (up 24.35% yoy) in fiscal year 2011.
