Rumor: 360Buy Prepping a Fashion E-tailer Site for November Launch

Chinese B2C e-commerce site 360Buy – also known as Jing Dong Mall – is rumored to have bought the Toplife.com domain in preparation for a move into fashion e-tailing. Its primary business is in 3C appliances and its online bookstore, in direct competition with Dangdang (NYSE:DANG).

If true, 360Buy’s diversification will put it onto a collision course with China’s largest B2C site, Alibaba’s (HKG:1688) Tmall platform – which features official brand storefronts for clothing, electronics, and all kinds of wares.

360Buy is China’s second-largest B2C site. Chinese tech site DoNews reports that the company bought the Toplife.com name back in December of last year for 200,000 RMB (just over US$31,000). A WhoIs check on the domain reveals that it is indeed owned by someone in Beijing right now.

Fashion e-tailing is a hotly contested sector in China, with large platforms such as Tmall and QQ Buy up against smaller specialist sites such as Vancl. And then there are also numerous high-end and brand-oriented e-commerce sites, such as Sina Luxury, and the Luxury Club.

[Source: DoNews – article in Chinese]