Online retailers in price war

BEIJING - Chinese retail giants on Wednesday started offering massive tit-for-tat discounts to fire up sales amid sluggish domestic demand.

Liu Qiangdong, chairman and founder of 360buy.com, China's second-largest online retailer by sales, announced that his company will sell all major electric home appliances at cheaper prices than those of rivals Gome and Suning as of Wednesday morning.

"Our home appliances will be priced ten percent lower than those of Gome and Sunning," Liu said.

Li Bin, vice executive of retail giant Suning.com, replied to Liu's announcement by stating that all items sold by Suning, including home appliances, are already cheaper than those on 360buy.com.

Other online retailers, including Dangdang.com and smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi have announced their own deals and preferential policies to attract a bigger portion of the country's massive online shopping demographic.

Large discounts are one of the few methods online retailers have at their disposal to attract more consumers, as the market is highly competitive. Liu said only large portions of market share can help companies offset supply costs.

360buy.com suffered a loss of 1.3 billion yuan in 2011, with its gross profit margin at 5.5 percent for the year.