Suning breaks ground on e-commerce headquarters

Suning Appliance Co Ltd, China's largest electrical appliance retailer, began construction on the country's largest e-commerce headquarters on Monday.

The 1-billion-yuan ($159 million) facility will cover an area of 200,000 square meters and is scheduled to go into service in 2014.

Suning said earlier that it is planning a rapid expansion of its online business this year.

"Our 2012 target for online sales is 30 billion yuan ($4.77 billion). The site will sell daily necessities, clocks, musical instruments, and other goods, in addition to electrical appliances," said chairman Zhang Jindong.

To support this rapid development, Suning plans to add five major procurement and sales centers. The company said it aims to expand online sales by 50 percent annually over the next 10 years.

In addition to expanding its online business, the home appliance giant plans to add more than 400 retail outlets this year, including stores in Hong Kong and Japan.

"While we plan to add stores, we're still paying attention to our online business," Zhang said. "Traditional sales and e-commerce have different customers. We believe the two can develop cooperatively."

Suning released its 2011 annual report last month. Sales revenues were up 24.35 percent from the previous year to 93.89 billion yuan ($14.9 billion). Online sales contributed 5.9 billion yuan of the total.

Founded in 1990 in Nanjing, Suning was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2004. Suning launched its online business in 2010 and now has about 1,724 stores at home and abroad.