China's Distribution Systems Come of Age

Source from:  tobaccoreporter.com Thursday, September 28, 2006 09/30/2006

At least 90 per cent of China's 4.3 million cigarette retailers are placing orders for cigarettes by telephone and 60 per cent are paying for those orders through electronic accounting systems, according to the Yangtze River Daily reporting on a cigarette-trade symposium put on by the China Tobacco Society. Addressing the symposium, Li Jian, deputy director of the Cigarette Sales Network Establishment Department of the China National Cigarette Sales Corp, said China had developed a system of placing orders for cigarettes by telephone, a system of allocating cigarette supplies online, a system of electronic accounts settlement, and a modern distribution system. The new trading systems are said to have been developed to meet the challenges from transnational tobacco companies following China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001. Enditem