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INTRO
It's been five years since China first launched its own Cyber Monday, which falls on Nov. 11.
The day, intended to promote online shopping, has not only created sales records in a row, but also drawn loud complaints from traditional retailers.
And this year, physical stores might take another blow as major e-commerce players allow consumers to try out their products before placing orders online.
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The lines between online retail platforms and bricks-and-mortar stores are set to get blurry.
With only days ahead of Cyber Monday, online retailers have extended their business from online to offline, known as the O2O business model.
TMall, a business-to-consumer marketplace of China's biggest e-commerce platform, Alibaba, has led the changes.
It has talked more than 30,000 traditional retailers into opening shops on its online bazaar while displaying their wares in their "offline" stores.
SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) ZHANG YONG, COO, Alibaba Group:
"What we do first is to allow online and offline customers to flow. We will track this flow and their purchasing behavior. In fact, no matter shopping online or offline, one's purchasing behaviors are unified. Secondly, if customers become interested in a certain product online, they can buy it offline. Vice versa. If a certain product catches the eyes of consumers, they can buy it online, where more retailers are available."
According to him, at the end of the day, there would be no distinction between online and offline and all stores will become a part of online retailing.
Yintai Group is one of the traditional companies that cooperate with TMall.
The company says traditional retailers like itself should also embrace the business model of e-commerce.
SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) CHEN XIAODONG, CEO, Yintai Group:
"The Internet does not belong to internet companies only. Each company should fit into the business model during the era of the Internet. This is why we should cooperate with well-developed internet giant. We cannot tell customers where to buy, but rather, we should follow their habit and then change our own business model."
China's leading electrical appliance retailer, Suning, has also expanded its product range with the same prices on and off the net.
The company announced on Wednesday that it plans to close some of its 1,600 stores and revamp the remainder, to support the online shopping experience and coordinate with logistics.
At the very beginning of Cyber Monday, which was launched by Alibaba in 2009, the logo of the sales campaign is, going online.
While this year, going online as well as offline has become the catchphrase. But experts say, although online retailers are moving the shopping experience back into physical stores, more transactions will still be made over the Internet, as better deals draw customers away from malls and department stores.
