Editorial Summary

Chinese home appliance and electronics retailer Gome's (0493.HK) online store on Alibaba's consumer-to-consumer (C2C) site Taobao was shut down due to price discrepancies, reports China Business Post quoting a Gome online service department employee on February 29. According to the employee, merchandise prices vary across Gome's offline stores according to their regional locations. Merchadises of Gome's online stores are unified and lower than those of offline stores, a circumstance that turned Gome's own stores into competitors, said the employee. Gome opened its online store on Taobao on December 22, 2007.