Chinese B2C e-commerce website 360buy.com has published its latest operating statistics, stating that by April 2012, the company had gained 40 million registered users and its order volume reached 400,000 each month in March and April this year.
According to the company, its sales of large home appliances are currently increasing at the annual growth rate of about 200%. Lan Ye, chief marketing officer of 360buy.com, told local media that 360buy.com's large home appliances have cost advantages, which help improve supply chain efficiency, and optimize inventory turnover and cash-flow rate, so as to benefit the consumers.
At the same time, Lan called on home appliances manufacturers to attach more importance to e-commerce. He said though the overall Internet shipments are low for some manufacturers, e-commerce is a general trend for future revenue development.
Commenting on how to develop e-commerce without affecting the traditional offline operations, Lan advised that the manufacturers can establish a special marketing unit to promote the establishment of a business process that is suitable for e-commerce. In addition, they can divide products and supply chain standards by sales channels.
360buy.com also announced that it has signed home appliances procurement agreements for the next three years, with total value of CNY80 billion. These agreements reportedly focus on large home appliances products. The agreements cover manufacturers like Haier, Hisense, Midea, Gree, Whirlpool, Panasonic, Samsung, LG, Electrolux, and Sony.
To coordinate with the new strategy, the company will launch six new logistics warehouses in 2012 and during the next three years, it expects to build 50 to 60 logistics warehouses across China, covering most key cities in the country. So far, 360buy.com's large home appliances distribution system has covered 66 Chinese cities.
