Top brand store launches e-shopping

A retail chain store formed by an alliance of top domestic brands launched Thursday a smartphone application to further explore online business opportunities.

The store, called ­Chinabest100, exclusively ­offers products of top domestic brands from a variety of industries, such as electronics, jewelry and food and beverages.

Only companies ranking among the top three in their sectors are permitted to sell through the store, such as Lenovo, Haier, TCL, and jewelry maker Chow Tai Seng.

The store resembles ­Alibaba's Tmall, but it only sells products from top domestic brands, said Feng Jun, chairman of electronics producer aigo Digital Technology and initiator of the aigo Entrepreneurs Alliance. The alliance operates an online e-commerce platform with 75 participating brands.

Also on Thursday, aigo, ­together with around 100 other domestic brands released the Beijing Declaration of Chinese Best Brands, vowing to revitalize domestic brands and to abide by an ethical business code such as observing honesty, valuing patent protection and fighting corruption.

The first Chinabest100 store was opened in Beijing in December 2012, and 23 stores have been established in cities across China since then. Several new stores are expected to open soon in the next two months, said Feng Miao, director of the branding department at the aigo Culture Development (Beijing) Holding Co, a subsidiary of aigo that is operating the Chinabest100 project.

Participating brands need to compete with each other to stay in the store, since incompetent brands could be weeded out and replaced by new brands.

The company plans to open around 5,000 franchised stores across the country, and is expected to open its first overseas store in Paris by the year-end.