Gome Electronics is hoping to increase mainland sales by entering the music and movie retail business as early as next month, despite rampant piracy within the industry.
The mainland's largest home appliance chain said it would tackle the piracy issue by selling CDs and DVDs at similar prices to black market vendors.
'Our strategy is low pricing,' president Huang Guangyu said. 'We are not aiming for any profit for the first year of operation. We will shorten the logistics chain to cut pricing for legitimate products by 20 to 30 per cent.'
Under a five-year plan, Gome will invest 500 million yuan, targeting 10 billion yuan in yearly sales and a 30 per cent market share.
Gome will have 130 in-store music and movie shops ready by May 1, when China starts its one-week Labour Day holiday.
The chain wants to open 600 standalone stores by the end of the year and 5,000 shops by 2009.