One of China’s leading online retailers has upped the ante in the battle for seafood sales by opening a high-end restaurant serving up imported specials like salmon, crab, and lobster.
The Suning Yigou Seafood Restaurant in the prosperous city of Nanjing appears to be the latest effort to move by Suning Commerce Group into higher-margin activities. Having made its name as a retailer of electronics with big-box stores nationwide, in recent years, Suning has moved into online sales of imported and high-grade fresh foods. Suning is now battling with the likes of Alibaba, which serves cooked seafood to consumers at its Hema supermarket stores.
The offerings at Suning’s upmarket new 600-square-meter restaurant on Huaihai Street in Nanjing include CNY 18.80 (USD 2.93, EUR 2.51) “sampler” plates of sushi and a 650- to 700-gram portion of brown crab for CNY 128 (USD 19.97, EUR 17.10).
Combining retail with smart-casual dining options has recently been a major trend in Chinese seafood sales. In the past week alone, the Norwegian Seafood Council ran a “Norway Seafood Festival” in conjunction with the Super Species chain operated by Yonghui. Meanwhile, Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food, and the Marine Michael Creed hosted Chinese journalists for a banquet of Irish seafood at a City Super outlet in Shanghai.
Suning has invested in Yiguo.com, a fresh produce e-commerce platform also backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Yunfeng Capital. Shanghai-based Yiguo.com operates its own independent cold-chain logistics facilities, covering hundreds of Chinese cities.
