Best Buy introduces online store in China

The United States-based electronic products retailer Best Buy Co Inc has introduced an online store in China under its RocketFish brand, doing so on Tmall, the unit of Alibaba Group that acts a medium of sales between businesses and customers.

The online trading platform is being operated by the electronic products retailing company www.new7.com. The trial operation of the online store started on July 7.

Tian Yuan, the Brand Director of new7.com, was quoted by Beijing Times as saying that the online store has received recognition from customers and that it sold more than 1,000 items on Aug 28.

Best Buy closed its Shanghai headquarters and nine Best Buy-branded stores in Feb 2011. Later, it announced it would return to China by introducing Best Buy Mobile, a retailer of mobile devices, to Chinese consumers toward the middle of this year. The first store opened under that brand is in Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu province.

“Many people have doubts about whether Best Buy will do well in China and think the company still does not understand the Chinese market,” Tian said. “Actually, Best Buy has been preparing for this return.”