CKGSB Dialogue: The Case of 360buy

There is no doubt that e-commerce is skyrocketing in China, where 360buy has grown to become the largest online retailer in the country by transaction volume. What has led to 360buys’ success domestically and what challenges—in terms of profits, competition and logistics—does it face? How does 360buy envision its China strategy in the face of fierce domestic competition?

Having captured a majority share of China’s self-run online retail market, 360buy is now embarking on an expansion into western markets. 360buy launched an English-language website in October 2012, targeting consumers in the US and Europe, and hoping to compete head-to-head with Amazon.com and eBay. What is 360buy’s global strategy? On what premise is the strategy based and how does the company plan to compete with its western rivals?

CKGSB is pleased to host a dialogue with Mr. Shi Tao, Vice President of 360buy, and Teng Bingsheng, CKGSB Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Strategic Management, who will shed light on these questions.

ABOUT 360buy

360buy Group was formed in 1998, and is China’s largest online retailer, growing 3 times faster than the industry average. 360buy Group continued to achieve robust growth in the first quarter of 2012, having a 50.1% share in China’s self-run B2C market and a 22.7% share in China’s B2C market as a whole.

The success of the 360buy Group in China prompted a need to offer international customers equal access to Chinese high quality and low price products. Our global online store is now offering over an extensive catalogue of products, and this volume will continue to grow.

Chinese Website Statistics:

• 360buy currently has 51 million registered users, and 8000 suppliers
• The average daily page views (PVs) exceed 100 million
• The average daily unique visitors (UVs) exceed 10 million
• The number of orders per day exceeds 500,000