Department stores lash out early sales season

Many of China's E-commerce businesses have appeared for the very first time on China's biggest TV advertisement auction -- the CCTV ads auction. Taobao, Suning and Guomei have all beefed up their advertisement inputs.

Department stores are now rising up against the challenges from their E-commerce rivals, and race to lash out their seasonal sales promotions earlier than planned.

November is usually a quiet time for department stores before the end-of-year storm, but this has been changed after the huge success of online sales on Nov 11th, the singles day in China.

That day, Chinese online stores have pocketed in some 19 billion yuan, equivalent to the total sales of China's top department store over three years. The country's major department stores are now taking up the fight.

Cheng Yongjiang, Gen. Director Sales & Marketing, said, "All our departments are kicking off promotions at the moment, the highest discount we give out is 90 percent off, on average we give out 50 percent."

Many department stores are making full use of their advantage against online stores.

Zhou Jing, Maoye International Holdings, said, "Our biggest advantages are that we have the complete range of products, and customers can touch these goods and get a feeling for the products before making a purchase."

However E-commerce rivals are up for what they call a revolutionary change.

Ma Yun, Board Director of Alibaba.com, said, "If there really is going to be a competition, that would be a war between E-commerce and the traditional business model."

Both parties are now braced for severe competitions, although department stores are still keeping the upper hand. Despite the huge success of the Nov. 11 sales, most Chinese online stores landed in the red in the first three quarters of this year.