FOOTWEAR B2C WEBSITES TO FACE RESHUFFLE IN CHINA

AsiaInfo Services
05-11-2011
Footwear B2C Websites to Face Reshuffle in China

BEIJING, May 11, 2011 (SinoCast Daily Business Beat via COMTEX) -- This year is an important period for e-commerce companies that started their business from 2007 to 2008 and they will face reshuffle. To some extent, the first footwear B2C service provider to record sales value of CNY 1 billion a year will become the bellwether, pointed out a top executive of Letao.com.

Other companies that have the same ambitions include OkBuy.com, Taoxie.cn, S.cn, Tencent Holdings Limited (SEHK: 0700), Baidu Inc. (Nasdaq: BIDU) and many traditional footwear sellers.

The survey of iResearch Consulting Group shows that footwear has become the third largest segmented field of vertical B2C market after garments and 3C electric appliances. However, there is a question: which footwear B2C service provider understands the development strategy of Zappos and could copy its success story in China.

The top executive of Letao.com is confident that the Web site could take the leading status in the footwear B2C market. Both Letao.com and OkBuy.com say that they are the largest online footwear seller in China.

However, competition is currently severe in the footwear B2C market, where all participants aim to follow their idol Zappos, a global footwear B2C service provider recording sales value of more than USD 1 billion and merged by Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) for USD 1.2 billion.

However, there could only be one Zappos in China. To keep ahead of other opponents and snatch leading status, listing would be one good choice. The top executive of Letao.com reveals that the Web site will speed up its pace to float shares on the capital market.

At the end of April 2011, iResearch unveiled its reports for the Chinese B2C market, according to which OkBuy.com ranked number one last year in terms of sales value, which reached CNY 200 million. Letao.com followed with CNY 100 million. However, Letao.com was ahead of OkBuy.com in terms of monthly traffics.

The top executive of Letao.com discloses that the Web site plans to attract 400 brands and reap sales value of CNY 700 million to CNY 800 million by the yearend. OkBuy.com is also unwilling to lag behind, saying that its sales value will top CNY 600 million in the 2011 full year.

Analysts of iResearch believe that the construction of warehouses is important to e-commerce companies. For example, OkBuy.com has put abundant capitals in building logistic systems. Meanwhile, Letao.com has not paid enough attention to the aspect and has met bottleneck in goods delivery and further expansion.

(USD 1 = CNY 6.49)

Source: www.bjd.com.cn (May 11, 2011)

KEYWORD: BEIJING INDUSTRY KEYWORD: Internet & Online Services & Media SUBJECT CODE: General Industry Information
General Industry Information
SinoCast China Business Daily news
SinoCast China IT Watch
e-commerce
footwear
B2C
sales value
listing
expansion

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