China’s Gome Electrical Appliances boosted online sales by 84 per cent last year helping fuel a 43.5 per cent boost in annual profit.
The full year surplus was 1.28 billion yuan, (US$206.2 million).
The booming online operation is clearly still growing with a quarter on quarter sales boost of 117 per cent in the three months to December 31.
At the same time, Gome says it continued to refurbish its bricks and mortar store network and revamp its supply chain, procurement and distribution operations.
In annual figures released Monday, Gome said it continues to pursue its goal of becoming an ‘Open Omni-channel Retailer’ by optimising its open supply chain platform, driving further improvements in the areas of procurement, logistics, information system and financial services, and building an open omni-channel platform encompassing ‘online + offline + mobile terminal + other socialised channels’.
“The group has managed to provide cross-regional and cross-channel full services to consumers as a whole. The launch of this strategic transformation, supported by the low-cost highly-efficient open supply chain, has enabled the group to achieve year-on-year growth in key financial indicators for eight consecutive quarters and increase its operating efficiency,” the company said in a statement.
As well as renovating 100 existing stores, Gome continued its push into tier 2 markets, strengthened partnerships with supermarkets and department stores and promoted its eCommerce development. Last year it opened 145 new stores, 78 of them in tier 2 cities. A further 154 concessions were opened.
