Suning doubled its sales in 2012

Suning Appliance Co Ltd, China's largest electric appliances retailer by sales, said last year's sales revenue hit 18 billion yuan ($2.9 billion), up 211 percent year-on-year, despite the country's slowing economy and lackluster real estate market.

Sales of the company's e-commerce unit reached 1.5 billion yuan in 2012, while sales at Redbaby — the online platform for baby and pregnant women's products — reached 1.62 billion yuan last year, the company said in a filing with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Suning's chairman, Zhang Jindong, said earlier that the company's sales target for 2012 was 20 billion yuan.

The Nanjing-based retail giant is present in various business sectors, such as logistics, real estate, finance and e-commerce.