(Ecns.cn)--Online bookstores like Dangdang and Amazon are widely used by people in China, but their alternatives, that have been set up by Chinese publishing companies, do not have high name recognition like they do.
Aimed at providing various kinds of literature, a new online bookstore sponsored by the Chinese Writers Publishing Group is undergoing debugging and will be formally launched at the end of August.
The Chinese Writers Publishing Group is not the only publishing company that is interested in e-commerce. There are generally two types of online bookstores that have been opened by publishing companies, large ones that have their own domain names and small ones that use a sales platform similar to eBay.
Run by large publishing companies
Five years ago, China Machine Press launched its online bookstore, the golden-book.com, which was the first of its kind by a large Chinese publishing company. Like Dangdang and Amazon, this online bookstore has a large catalogue of books at over 500,000.
Though there was a large capital injection from China Machine Press, a comparatively complete book catalogue, and similar operating and distribution channels to Dangdang, the fate of the Golden-book online bookstore is not as optimistic as its competitors.
Compared with the discount of around 50% provided by Dangdang and Amazon, the discount by Golden-book is only 20% to 30%, which has driven many customers away. "Even the price of books published by China Machine Press itself also sells at a higher price than on Dangdang and Amazon," complained a customer who cannot understand why the prices are so high on Golden-book.
"We really cannot provide such a seductive discount to customers, like Dangdang and Amazon do," said Lian Yibing, manager of the Golden-book bookstore, who also feels helpless when asked why their prices are so high.
Last year, the biggest 3C online retailer 360buy Jingdong Mall which is famous for selling home appliances entered into the online book market, triggering price wars with other online bookstores like Dangdang and Amazon.
In order to attract more customers, online bookstores like 360buy and Dangdang injected large amounts of money in succession to support themselves in the price battle. Offering customers the lowest prices possible, this made the prices of books sold online too low.
Though low prices can attract customers, considering the publishing cost for companies like China Machine Press, it is impossible for them to give such an attractive discount to buyers, said Lian.
Affected by the price battle between private online bookstores, the client base of Golden-book.com has shrunk. In order to win back some buyers, they have had to provide some preferential services for their customers, like decreasing the transportation expenses and providing a more flexible discount service.
Though facing great challenges, the enthusiasm of publishing companies for opening online bookstores has not decreased. For many officials in publishing companies, opening online bookstores is a way for them to build a complete industry chain.
Making profits through opening online bookstores seems to not be the only purpose for large publishing companies. Opening online bookstores is a preparation for digital publishing in the future, and is a foreshadowing of the sale of e-books, said an official from China Machine Press.
