Suning to expand in third and fourth tier cities

Suning Commerce Group Co, China’s leading retailer of electronics, will continue to open more shops in third and fourth tier markets while upgrading its existing stores in first and second tier cities, said Sun Weimin, deputy chairman of Suning.

According to its third season financial report, its first nine month profits have been decreased 73.4 percent year-on-year as a result of its large number of stores being closed and its strategy to remain same price between online and offline.

The company closed 150 shops among its 1474 shops despite its new openings of 54 shops between the first nine months of this year. The company has 31 chain shops in Hong Kong and 11 shops in Japan.

This year, Suning has vowed to transform itself to an Internet enterprises.

The retailer opened its first oversea research and development center in Silicon valley to develop its offline-to-online business model and bolster its back-office capabilities.

Sun said the company didn’t receive first group of licenses for mobile virtual network operators.

He said on the 23th founding anniversary of Suning on Thursday that the first group being given licenses are mostly covering a region. But it will take some time for Suning who wants to cover nationwide uses to prepare application materials. Suning will actively provide repackaged mobile communications services directly to end users, said Sun.

Suning donated 36.9 million yuan on Sunshine 1 plus 1 community volunteer actions on Thursday.