An Innovative Solution for E-Commerce Marketing: eTong

The eTong is an e-commerce platform aimed at facilitating information exchange and electronic transactions among producers, suppliers and retailers by exploiting cost effective information technology. Through its innovative design, the eTong system replaces the complex intermediate sales links in distribution channels and integrates all the retailers to eTong to form a highly effective community. The "producers- eTong-retailers" model proposed by eTong is considered an innovative solution for traditional marketing and could potentially contribute to the enhancement of e-commerce in China. This paper first addresses the background of eTong and its system solution. Then, we describe two test beds to demonstrate the application of eTong in tobacco and non-tobacco industries. At last, we conclude the paper with perspectives on future development of eTong and also the challenges it faces.