Wake Up, Ikea: Beijing Furniture Shoppers Have a New Place to Snooze

If e-commerce is the art of conjuring profit out of intangible pixels – of siphoning money from consumers who don’t need to handle the goods before they buy them – then it’s quite fitting that the conglomerate named Alibaba (which owns Taobao.com) has a wizardly lock on online retail in China. But don’t count out the ol’ brick-and-mortar just yet. The Washington Post reports that Taobao is using good old-fashioned tactile persuasion to make gains in one of the few sectors where e-commerce is still weak.

Bowing to the reality that consumers still hesitate to pay for heavy-duty durable goods before they’ve had a chance to test-drive them, Taobao has opened a massive furniture showroom that rivals Ikea for “touchy-feely” appeal. Squeeze that mattress, scrutinize its springs and coils – hell, sniff it, if you like. Buy with confidence. Just don’t expect to actually carry it home with you.

The five-story 25,000sqm Taobao Mall iFengChao Furniture Showroom, located southeast of Sihui subway station (just outside the East Fourth Ring Road) opened its doors last Friday to big crowds.

Here’s how one shops at the iFengChao Taobao Mall:

1) Get a membership card at the front desk (where you can also register for a Taobao.com account).
2) Commence browsing. Bounce on a few sofas, jiggle a bookshelf, pet the housewares.
3) Add items to your virtual shopping cart at one of the 170 touchscreen terminals scattered throughout the store
4) At the “cashier,” confirm your order and payment method.
5) Go home and await delivery.

To celebrate the store’s opening, they’re even offering free delivery on all purchases until June 10.

Taobao Mall iFengChao Furniture Showroom. Mon-Fri 9am-9pm, Sat-Sun 9am-10pm. Shengshi Longyuan (southeast of Sihui subway station), Chaoyang District (400 6110 829) www.ifengchao.com, http://010jia.tmall.com
淘宝商城爱蜂潮家居体验馆, 朝阳区四惠地铁南盛世龙源

Photos: Gizmodo, Nostraforma