Yao Danqian, Chinese B2C e-commerce site Dangdang's (NYSE: DANG) vice president in charge of procurement and sales, said today that the company has set a sales target of RMB 20 bln for its open platform this year. The open platform is chief among the key focuses of Dangdang's 2012 strategy, under which the site hopes to duplicate Chinese home appliance and consumer electronics retailer Gome's (0493.HK) "store-in-store" model for 3C products, apparel, childcare, and general goods on its site.

Dangdang's partnership with Gome covers full interactivity between their platforms, including common user logins and shared sales data. On March 31, Gome and Dangdang connected their backend sales databases, meaning that product price data and other information will be uniform between Gome's online store and its store on Dangdang's platform.

Dangdang and Gome signed an exclusive partnership agreement dictating that Dangdang will not cooperate with any other retailers in the area of major household appliances, and will gradually phase out its own sales of major household appliances.

Yao said that Dangdang is preparing to partner with Gome on a "lowest price online" offensive in the field of 3C products - possibly even selling some products at zero profit.

Source:marbridgeconsulting