American online retail giant Amazon has opened shop on Chinese counterpart Alibaba’s business-to-consumer platform in an attempt to establish its greater presence in the Asia’s massive market.
The Seattle-based company is offering the shoppers with excellent range of products, ranging from food, toys, women’s footwear and kitchenware via its store on Alibaba’s Tmall.com.
Tmall.com was ‘silently’ launched on Thursday, according to Chinese media. On the day of launch, storefront of Amazon carried the message: “It’s Day 1”.
Welcoming Amazon to Alibaba’s ecosystem, a company spokesperson said in a statement, “We welcome Amazon to the Alibaba ecosystem and their presence will further broaden the selection of products and elevate the shopping experience for Chinese consumers on Tmall.”
Both Alibaba and Amazon are major rivals in many areas, but unlike the American company the Chinese counterpart is without any product stocks of its own, which simply provides a trading platform.
Tmall is expected to hold more than half the market in Asia’s largest economy for business-to-consumer transactions.
Amazon is not new to the China’s massive market. Last year, the US company has opened an official store intending its Kindle e-book reader on Tmall. Amazon made entry in China with the acquisition of Joyo.com, an online retailer that deals in music, videos and books, in August 2004. In 2011, the website was re-branded as Amazon.cn.