Suning to launch open platform in Sept

Suning Commerce Group Co Ltd, a leading home appliance retailer, is expected to launch a platform in September to boost the company's e-commerce business, a company executive said on Monday.

Sun Weimin, vice-chairman of Suning, said during the annual China Internet Conference in Beijing, that the company will make a "big move" in September to launch its open platform to allow third-party vendors to sell on Suning's online marketplace.

Sun said that Suning has integrated its online and offline businesses in June to boost the company's e-commerce.

"The open market will maximize the use of our company's own resources, including our data, logistic systems and even the large network of our own stores," Sun said.

Suning has a network of about 1,600 or 1,700 stores across China, Sun said.

"The number of our stores is expected to reach 3,000 or 3,500 in 2020," he said.

In the company's H1 financial report, released at the end of July, Suning saw its e-commerce business increase by 101 percent to 10.6 billion yuan ($1.73 billion).