Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (Hangzhou, China) will invest nearly $700 million in Intime Retail Group Co. Ltd (Beijing), owner of 36 department stores and shopping centers in China. The companies will form a venture in that country, using shopping malls, department stores and supermarkets to develop an online-to-offline business.
The venture will compete with Tencent Holding Ltd. (Shenzhen, China) and its WeChat instant messaging application. Notes Bloomberg News, “Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu Inc. are acquiring mobile, shopping and entertainment content services as they fight for the attention of China’s 618 million Internet users.”
According to the companies, Alibaba’s Tmall.com will have access to Intime’s inventory, broadening the variety of merchandise available. Customers will be able to pick up online orders in Intime stores. In a statement, Daniel Zhang, chief operating officer, Alibaba, said, “We see significant opportunities to extend our e-commerce platform to physical retail, developing a more engaging, omnichannel and digitally connected shopping experience.”