Midea Group, a Foshan, Guangdong Province-based home appliances maker, recently signed a strategic sales cooperation pact at its headquarters with home appliances retailer Suning Corp, news portal 163.com reported Sunday.

Midea Group would sell the entire range of its products, including refrigerators, washing machines and air conditioners, through both Suning Corp's online platform and retail outlets across the country, in a bid to increase sales over the next three years to 50 billion yuan ($7.9 billion), the report said.

The companies, which are major players in their respective fields, formed the alliance at a time the home appliance sales in China are declining after the industry stimulus policies were ended and the real estate market is treading water.

"Midea's teaming-up with such a strong retailer as Suning will benefit the manufacturer, which, like many others, has been looking for a way to enter the e-commerce field," Liu Hongjiao, a senior e-commerce consultant at Beijing-based consulting firm Analysys International, told the Global Times yesterday.

The Nanjing, Jiangsu Province-based Suning Corp runs a B2C e-commerce platform, suning.com, and the two companies said in an announcement on Suning Corp's website earlier this month that they would put the emphasis on consolidating Midea's products with suning.com's supply chain, strengthening online consumer research, further differentiating their online products and boosting online sales.

Both companies would also combine their IT systems to share information and increase supply chain efficiencies. Midea Group would customize multiple models of air conditioners, fridges and all the rest of its products every year to be sold exclusively by Suning Corp, according to the announcement.

"The manufacturing firms do not have expertise in marketing and lack the experience in dealing with the consumers. So it is wise for Midea to use Suning's know-how in online marketing and strong implementation skills, instead of building an e-commerce platform by itself," Liu said.

It costs 300 yuan to attract one customer to a B2C e-commerce platform, Liu noted.

"The home appliance market will experience a tepid growth in 2012, and the companies should be prepared by improving product quality and increasing efficiency," Lu Renbo, vice secretary-general of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce, told the Global Times yesterday.