360Buy Announces its 100 Millionth Order, Thanks Social Media

360Buy's graphic, posted to its Weibo account, to celebrate its 100 millionth order.

360buy – also known as Jingdong Mall – is now China’s second largest B2C online market place. Yesterday afternoon, 360buy announced on its official Sina Weibo account that the company had just received its 100 millionth order. Also, its number of registered customers has reached 28 million. The site sells primarily 3C products, but it has diversified into books as well

The order was placed by someone in Changsha, central China, who will, as a reward, get the whole order will be free of charge. Let’s hope that person ordered a plasma-screen TV, not a 5-dollar USB stick.

360buy’s fast growth is partially due, the company insists, to taking orders via its microblogging account – plus its social media engagement with the public there – which it terms “w-commerce.” On September 15th, 360buy said in reply to an online article that in that past few days, its Weibo account – take a look here – had had over 300 thousand new followers, and over 5,000 orders placed directly through it, which were worth over 2 million RMB (US$314,000). Thus, it claimed the new era of w-commerce had begun.

While Weibo gives another boost to 360buy’s business, it is a double-edged sword. Weibo is now a place where buyers voice their complaints and disappointment in poor quality products, delayed shipments, and dissatisfying customer service – all vocally and in public.

360Buy.com is rumored to be aiming for a US IPO in 2012. And, just yesterday, we heard that the company was prepping a move into the B2C fashion/clothing sector as well.