Yu Minhong: East Buy Plans 1,000 Physical Stores in Three Years

This signals a notable strategic pivot for a livestream-native retailer toward physical retail, likely to capture offline trust and distribution channels as online competition intensifies. The scale—1,000 stores—carries significant execution and capital risks, making the pace of rollout and store economics the key metrics to watch. For the broader e-commerce sector, this could test whether hybrid online-offline models gain traction among Chinese consumers, or if the move is defensive against margin pressure.