Dangdang.com, the largest online book seller in China, has begun to expand toward offline retailing services and plans to get listed overseas in 2007.
Yu Yu, president of Dangdang.com, tells local media that the company started its strategy of entering the general merchandise market in the beginning of 2005 in order to shift from a pure online book seller to a comprehensive online department store.
According to latest statistics, its non-book selling service has accounted for 60% of Dangdang's total sales revenue. In particular, digital products, cosmetics and home goods sales have done well for the company.
Yu says that Dangdang has been focusing on developing overseas buyers this year, and has carried out cash-on-delivery (COD) services in cooperation with partners from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
Yu also says that Dangdang will open an office in Hong Kong in March 2006, and will arrange its listing in 2007.
Dangdang is one of the largest e-commerce websites in China. It was established in 1999. In October this year, it had 15.6 million registered users.