(Yicai Global) Oct. 21 -- Suning.Com’s shares soared by their daily trading limit after the struggling Chinese white goods retailer announced a tie-up with lifestyle service platform Meituan to offer quick deliveries of home appliances and digital products.

Suning [SHE: 002024] closed up 5 percent at CNY1.89 (26 US cents) today. As the Nanjing-based retailer reported net losses for three consecutive years, its daily trading limit was cut to 5 percent either way from 10 percent, per exchange rules, and the stock has lost half of its value this year.

More than 600 brick-and-mortar stores of Suning are now linked with the Meituan platform, offering coverage in 175 cities, the two announced today, adding that they will continue to deepen their partnership. They plan to have more than 1,000 Suning stores linked to the platform by next year. 

The collaboration, Meituan’s first with a big white goods retailer, means that consumers will be able to get deliveries of mobile phones, computers and home appliances in as little as 30 minutes.

Meituan can offer localized services and has a large number of young users, a Suning executive told Yicai Global, adding that the partnership can exploit both parties’ advantages in terms of capabilities and resources, and offer better service to customers. 

Suning was forced to shut its loss-making TTK Express delivery affiliate in the second half of last year due to poor financial standing, but it has continued to focus on online business. It had a net loss of CNY43.3 billion (USD6 billion) in 2021, after revenue dived 45 percent from a year earlier to CNY138.9 billion (USD19.2 billion). 

Beijing-based Meituan is the largest online delivery platform in China. Its food-delivery business Meituan Waimai had a transaction value of CNY702.1 billion (USD96.9 billion) last year, a 44 percent increase, with the number of transactions tallying 14.4 billion, a 42 percent gain, according to its annual earnings report. 

Editors: Dou Shicong, Tom Litting