(Yicai Global) Sept. 11 -- Procter & Gamble Co. [NYSE:PG] plans to set up a digital innovation center in China's southern city of Guangzhou as it looks to ramp up investment in digital development.

The corporation signed an investment cooperation agreement on the innovation center with the municipal government in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. It will invest USD100 million over the next three years to consolidate its China unit's experience in digital technology research, Big Data and digital supply chains and to push its business model transformation with innovative technology, Jiemian News quoted the company as saying.

The center will focus on five key areas: digital marketing, Big Data analysis, intelligent supply chains, artificial intelligence and incubation for innovative technology suppliers, to help P&G offer more advanced products and services and operate in a more sophisticated manner.

Research findings will be applied to the firm's entire supply chain, including e-commerce and offline retail stores, and be used to provide possible innovative digital technology support for the company's operation, it said.

Setting up the center will help P&G grasp opportunities arising from the rapid development of the internet and e-commerce and consolidate its lead in offline retail, said Matthew Price, president for the firm's Greater China unit.

China became the company's largest e-commerce market in 2014. Online sales made up more than 10 percent of its China business last year and a number of its products in the country have a bigger share in the online than offline market, said chief executive David Taylor.