Group buying websites in Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei province, have witnessed a drop in sales for three months in a row this year, compared to the record high deals in other cities, according to a new industry report.

The latest group-buy market statistics released by tuan800.com, a major website in this emerging industry, showed that the volume of business made in the group-buying websites was about 23 million yuan in April, representing a decline of about 2 percent year on year, and 15.5 percent lower than in January.

In addition, the number of buyers fell by about 10,000, reaching about 437,000 in April, the report said.

Some websites which normally offer discounts for restaurants, hotels and other entertaining services have turned their focus to products such as clothes and cosmetics. But they have to face competition from big brand e-commerce platforms - such as JD.com and Vancl.com - which means that their new services face difficulties.

Industry experts said that consumers may not want to buy online due to the long sales cycle – usually a month – and rising prices. And they have also become more rational, and are now only buying discounted items according to their needs, instead of stocking up.

But the good performance in other cities in China indicates that the group-buying services still have a good future.

In other cities, the business of these websites increased rapidly for the first four months of the year, with more than 45 million people purchasing items for discounts, a record high since group buying first appeared.

The report said their turnover for three months - except February – increased significantly, topping the previous months. In addition, certain items experienced explosive growth, for example, the sales of movie tickets in April exceeded 300 million yuan, and the volume of transaction for hotels reached 220 million yuan for the first time since the launch of group buying websites.