Gree seeks sustainable growth in a slowing market(2)

Dong, who always remains modest about her contributions, was ranked as one of the most powerful businesswomen in the country during 2014 by Fortune China. The magazine praised her for her influential role in transforming Gree to an eminent position in the global home appliance industry.

Moreover, Dong has often been more than willing to adapt to, or in many cases, fully embrace the changing industrial trends. An example of this is the company's recent foray into online services.

"As a key player in the traditional manufacturing sector, we attach great importance to the Internet business and have started online sales to meet market demand," Dong said.

Gree reported 132.5 million yuan in online sales during the Nov 11 Singles' Day online shopping spree, selling more than 47,000 air conditioners, according to figures provided by the company.

Sales of the Shenzhen-listed company increased 16.63 percent from a year earlier to almost 140 billion yuan in 2014.

"The growth was driven by increased efforts in technology and innovation, improved management, readjustment of product structure and lower prices of raw materials," Dong said.

Gree, whose products sell in more than 100 countries and regions, reported a net profit of 14.12 billion yuan in 2014, up 29.84 percent year-on-year, according to the company.

"The booming e-commerce segment will help drive a new round of business growth for Gree," Dong said.

Besides selling on major domestic e-commerce service providers including Tmall and JD.com, the company launched its self-developed online platform in December.

"It was the right time for traditional home appliance manufacturers like Gree to launch e-commerce services," Dong said, adding that before launching the online platform, the company was also planning to start after-sales services that could meet the demands of customers.

"We were thinking of ways to cater to demand from both offline and online customers. We want to ensure that we can provide the same quality of services for them. Our goal is to deliver good products and satisfy our customers," Dong said.

Home appliance makers take the online route for growth

Online sales have helped Chinese home appliance makers, especially air conditioner manufacturers achieve sustained business growth amid an industrial slowdown last year, according to a new industry report.

The report published by AVC, a consultancy that specializes in data on home appliances, said online sales of household air conditioners increased 85 percent year-on-year to 9.8 billion yuan ($1.57 billion) in 2014.

Meanwhile, domestic manufacturers sold more than 3.6 million units of household air conditioners via e-commerce platforms, up 93 percent from 2013, according to the report.

Online sales helped improve over all air-conditioner sales by about 4 percent age points, said Liu Hucheng, are searcher with AVC.

"The booming e-commerce market has helped create a new growth engine for makers of air conditioners, given that the offline market demand remained stagnant last year," said Liu.

Sales growth of air conditioners, through both online and offline channels, declined from 6.8 percent in 2013 to 5.2 percent last year, indicating weak prospects for the growth of the market this year also, he said.

To off set the slowdown, companies like Gree, Midea and Chigo have chalked out plans to boost sales through online platforms.

Gree Electric Appliances Inc launched a self-developed online shopping mall last year, while the Guangdong-based home appliance maker Midea Group has signed strategic agreements with e-commerce providers like JD.com and Suning to expand online sales.

Gree has also teamed up with e-commerce giant Alibaba to develop an online-to-offline sales model, with online services expected to cover more than 20,000 of the company's flag ship stores.

Online sales of Midea's products increased 160 percent year-on-year to nearly 4 billion yuan in the first half of2014, according to company sources.

"With more industrial players becoming actively engaged in e-commerce, the image and after sales services for air conditioners will be highly promoted in the near future," Liu said.

AVC expects online sales of air conditioners to increase 90 percent year-on-year to18.5billion yuan in 2015, with more than 6.65 million units to be sold.