Shop owners have also found ways to cope with financial challenges. Wu's company began to cut all unnecessary costs. He had to cut the spending on comfort in office, corporate image building and advertisement. In the meantime, Wu's employees have had to work overtime without premium pay, another form of salary cut. But there were little complaints. Instead, his 200-plus employees felt lucky as their boss promised not to cut staff.

Various sales channels have been employed. Wu found he couldn't just wait for customers to visit his storefronts. He began to visit his regular corporate customers in an effort to find new orders.

E-commerce is another way dealers have been coping. Thanks to e-commerce, Huang Ping's shop was not as deeply affected by the crisis as other shops with same size. Huang's team built an online forum about the basic tips of choosing and utilizing computers, and answered visitors' various questions. In time, visitors began to trust the company and choose her as their supplier of IT products.

Huang estimated that about 80 percent of her sales volume came via Internet. While many dealers face a lack of customers, Huang's e-commerce tactics have brought customers nationwide.

Han Wei, media and public manager of the Hong Kong-listed Alibaba, the leading e-commerce company in China, said more enterprises turned to e-commerce to cut costs and expand their ever-shrinking customer base Alibaba is now taking this advantage to expand its reach.

Wu, who continues to maintain traditional storefronts, began e-commerce two months ago, just after the crisis broke out. Online sales now account for 10 percent of Wu's total sales volume.

"It does help me," said Wu referring to his cost-cutting measures and foray into e-commerce, "I hope the loss can be limited to 15 to 20 percent of the total assets."

Xia said dealers in his plaza showed great interest in online business. With their support, Hilon is now building a business-to-customer trade platform with Zhongsou, a Chinese-language online search engine.

"Under the present situation, e-commerce is a way to expand sales and survive the economic winter," said Xia.

(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2009)