Amazon opened an online store on Alibaba Group’s online marketplace, Tmall.com on Thursday in hopes of reaching more Chinese consumers. The e-commerce giant has had difficulty making its mark in China amongst competitors.
The company’s current activity on the Tmall store is only a test run, though it is set to launch officially at the end of March or beginning of April. Amazon is currently selling electronics, food and beverages, household, and baby and maternity items on the Tmall site.
“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,” a spokesperson from Alibaba told CNBC.
Ben Cavender, an analyst for China Market Research Group said the move could be an acknowledgement by Amazon that it cannot take on the Chinese market alone and recognizes that its better to work through Tmall because of its popularity, according to CNBC.
Tmall currently dominates China’s main online shopping websites with 61 percent share of the market, iResearch reported.
Cavendar added that the move could also be an attempt to promote awareness of the brand in the country, which would be beneficial for Amazon as China holds the world’s largest e-commerce market. It could also help boost the company’s international sales, which made up nearly 38 percent of the company’s revenue last year.
Amazon launched its own Amazon Global Store on its China site in November 2014, providing roughly 200,000 products selected from the U.S. website based on the most popular Chinese customer demands.