Xinhua Bookstore, China’s largest bookstore chain brand, enters the food delivery platform Eleme to boost sales and provide convenience for customers.

A courier from Eleme, an online food delivery platform, takes books ordered by a client from a Xinhua Bookstore outlet in Shanghai. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

Thirty bookstores under the chain have started to offer book delivery services in Shanghai via Eleme on April 23, marking the annual World Book Day.

Before making their online debut, the bookstores investigated the reading habits of customers living near their stores in order to offer targeted services, also placing books to be sold on Eleme in the most prominent place in their stores to increase the speed of locating and packing them.

"We’ve created a group chat consisting of heads of the 30 bookstores to discuss and share our experiences," said Zhang Zhifang, who has worked at the largest Xinhua Bookstore outlet in Shanghai for 20 years.

According to statistics from Eleme, more than 70 percent of the customers are female and 28 percent are born after 1990. In Shanghai, there is a Xinhua bookstore every few kilometers, which means the books could be quickly delivered.