Chinese Offline Retailer Makes Internet Group Discount Buying Push

Suning.com, the e-commerce platform of Chinese electronics and home appliances retailer Suning, revealed that they will launch a new nationwide group discount buying service this week.

Suning.com’s new group buying channel will focus more on the sales of non-physical products, including dining, entertainment, lifestyle, hotel, and tourism services; though it also provides physical products. A total of 30,000 products will be available in this new channel.

At present, the group buying channel is undergoing internal beta tests and is expected to be formally launched on September 25, 2012. By then, the group buying channel will be listed in the product category column on the front page of Suning.com.

Li Bin, executive vice president for Suning.com, said that Suning.com’s new group buying business will cover over 140 cities across the country, excluding Xinjiang.

Statistics provided by the group buying navigation website Tuan800.com showed that during the first half of 2012, China’s group buying market realized trading value of CNY9.68 billion. The current monthly trading value has been nearly CNY2 billion, and the total trading value for the entire year of 2012 is expected to reach CNY20 billion.