(Yicai) Aug. 15 -- Gree Electric Appliances, China's biggest maker of air conditioners, has told dealers in several areas of the country to order via its new online wholesale system, which sidesteps the firm’s local sales branches.

The company instructed dealers in Guangzhou and Foshan to order air conditioner units through the new system and not its local units from this month, a Gree store manager in South China told Yicai. An insider at Gree's sales unit in Shandong province and a dealer in Hebei province also confirmed that the new system has gone live in those regions.

The role of Gree's regional sales units will change as a result of the new business-to-business platform, a person connected with the company’s Guangzhou branch told Yicai, without providing any further details about how.

The regional units will still play a role in formulating sales policies but will be supervised by head office to ensure the interests of dealers and make sure that pricing is within a reasonable range, the person added.

The platform, which Zhuhai-based Gree developed itself, is intended to provide merchants with one-stop services, including ordering, logistics, and operational analysis, while helping the firm to achieve digital and intelligent management of its various businesses, the person added.

Dealers can order goods, make payment, and learn about new products and inventory data more conveniently through the platform, he noted, adding that it can also make the flow of people, money, and merchandise within Gree more orderly and efficient, reducing compatibility and communication costs among different internal systems.

After flattening the sales hierarchy, Gree will continue introducing new rebate methods for dealers to encourage them to sell its products, the person pointed out.

An analyst in the air conditioner industry pointed out that Gree's biggest challenge at present is the rigidity of its sales channel structure and brand strategy, so further reducing channel layers is an important aspect of the firm’s product sales reform.

Gree dominated the offline channel for air conditioners in the Chinese market with a share of 32 percent this year, up 0.7 percentage point from a year ago, according to data provider All View Cloud. It ranked second in the online channel, as its share fell 3.7 points to 23.4 percent.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev