After a year-long preparation period, China's Xinhua Bookstore is finally starting its online sales business by cooperating with seven bookstores, including Beijing Books Building, Wangfujing Bookstore, and Zhongguancun Bookstore.

The Xinhua Bookstore website, named beifabook.com, was opened in November 2007. However, the website did not launch a retail sales business at that time and it mainly focused on consulting activities about books. After the preparation period, the website will shift its focus to the sales of books and the price of books sold on the website will be much lower than those in its general bookstores.

As a traditional Chinese bookstore brand, Xinhua Bookstore aims to expand its market through a low-price strategy as it competes with other Chinese e-commerce sites like Joyo-Amazon, Dangdang.com, and Taobao.com. A representative from the Beijing Xinhua Bookstore told local media that online bookstores have became a great channel for the sales of books and the opening of their online store was also a move to adapt to people's buying habits.