Amazon.com, the world's largest online retailer, has set up a new operation center in eastern China to facilitate sales in one of the country's most prosperous regions and profit from growing consumer spending.

It is part of several strategic moves the US-based company has taken in the past two months to compete with its major rival in China, dangdang.com, which is more popular than its Chinese unit joyo.com.

The 11,000-square-meter center in Suzhou in Jiangsu Province is the second-largest center. The investment size was not disclosed.

"The new operation center is evidence of our plans to enhance the scope of our services and to enable more customers to enjoy a higher quality of online shopping experience," said Wang Hanhua, president of Joyo.

"As we have expanded Joyo's product selection, we will work to lower prices and help our customers find exactly what they need on our trading platform."

Joyo has widened its range to 400,000 products like books, music, DVDs and digital cameras in a shift from focusing on a small selection of high-quality goods.

It trails dangdang.com. A latests survey by Analysys International, a Beijing-based researcher, showed 31.3 percent of consumers would choose joyo while 39 percent would opt for dangdang.

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