Suning.com Empowers Local Rice Brand with Tailored Farm-To-Table Approach During 618 Shopping Festival

NANJING, China, July 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Suning.com ("the Company"; 002024.SZ), China's leading smart retail service provider and a Fortune Global 500 company owned by Suning Group, has successfully boosted the sales of high-quality agricultural products and brought a change to local agricultural brands with its industry-leading strengths in supply chain, logistics and retail sales, as the Company wrapped up its 618 shopping festival campaign.

During the 618 promotion, one of the largest of the year, Suning.com has made agricultural products one of the key focuses, in addition to cosmetics, home appliances and other consumer-electronic items.

Specifically, Suning.com has made efforts in promoting Wuchang rice under the Sutian brand name, as part of the Company's tailored marketing strategy to boost and support agricultural products from rural areas. During the promotion, Sutian's rice sold about 40 tons a day, reflecting Suning.com's ongoing efforts to brand and promote these types of agricultural products.

The Sutian brand marks another successful attempt for Suning.com in helping agricultural brands to jump on the e-commerce bandwagon. Since 2019, Suning.com has actively identified quality agricultural products in a bid to help local farmers directly bring their products to more consumers across the country and in turn help consumers receive products directly from the source. Such a farm-to-table approach has been well received and recognized by both farmers and consumers alike, as it reduces costs for farmers and offers cheaper prices for consumers.

China's Wuchang rice has been dubbed one of the best rice products in China with its annual production reaching about 500,000 tons. However, there has been knock-off Wuchang rice available on the market that uses Wuchang branding. Suning.com has joined forces with Wuchang Shanxiang Rice, a local rice farming company, to rebrand the local company's old "Gu Uncle" brand and re-branded its Wuchang rice under the brand name of Sutian, so that consumers would no longer need to worry about counterfeits.

To ensure the best quality of Sutian rice, Suning.com fully participates in the operations of the product, including research, farming, packaging, marketing and sales on all the Company's online and offline marketplaces. Suning.com even promoted the product through livestreaming sales.

Zhang Kui, president of Suning Social E-Commerce, said that the Sutian rice brand is a perfect example that showcases Suning.com's goal of boosting the local agriculture industry, creating a more enhanced ecosystem and facilitating an industry upgrade.

A manager in charge of Wuchang Shanxiang Rice said that "we have not only obtained the brand endorsement with Suning's support, but also optimized our operations to serve customers, which has led to a significant rise in sales volume and repurchases."

On June 1 alone, such Sutian rice sold 40 tons. To date, Sutian rice, supported by Suning, has a total farming area of over 300,000 mu (about 49400 acres), which can produce about 120,000 tons of rice. Since last December when Sutian rice was put onto the Suning marketplace, it has sold about 5 million kilograms.

About Suning Group

Founded in 1990, Suning Group has two listed subsidiaries at home and abroad and more than 300,000 employees around the world, ranking third in the Chinese private sector. Being committed to its mission of Leading the Industrial Advancements in Creating a Higher Quality of Life for All, it provides quality products and services to more than 700 million customers worldwide and its business scope covers three main sectors: Retail, Real Estate, and Financial Service. Suning.com, the main subsidiary is a leading O2O smart retail service provider in China. In 2020, Suning.com maintained its position among the Fortune Global 500 and topped the 2020 List of China's 500 Most Valuable Brands with a brand value of RMB 296.815 billion.