Domestic retailers and online shopping sites are engaging in a new round of price wars to woo consumers.
But consumers seem increasingly skeptical, saying retailers expend more effort bragging rather than providing actual discounts.
Suning, China's largest home appliance retailer, said products at its brick-and-mortar outlets and online shopping arm will have the same prices from this weekend.
This will provide convenience for consumers so they won't spend extra time comparing offline and online prices, said the retailer.
And 51Buy.com, the online shopping arm under China's largest Internet company Tencent, said it's offering discounts for electrical goods - as well as other lines.
Online shoppers have complained that the price wars are bewildering, with more to do with boasts against rivals than savings.
"They're promising all kinds of sales promotions but it's hard to compare the actual discount rate because the original price also varies from different sites," said one microblog user surnamed Wu.
Other online vendors including Dangdang and Amazon.cn are also promised cash vouchers for shoppers.
And Dangdang and Amazon.cn are also promising cash vouchers for shoppers.
Last year, major shopping sites launched several rounds of price wars and their marketing stunts caught the attention of government authorities.
The Ministry of Commerce had said it will work on improving more detailed guidelines on online merchants' marketing operations.
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