Alibaba deepens retail foray with new Chinese supermarket tie-up

Hong Kong

ALIBABA Group Holding Ltd is teaming up with Shanghai Bailian Group Co, one of China's largest supermarket and department store chains, as Jack Ma accelerates an effort to employ technology to shake up old-fashioned retail.

Alibaba's planning to help upgrade some of Bailian's 4,700 stores across the country, integrating everything from customer relations to payment and logistics in a manner similar to its tie-ups with other players such as electronics chain Suning Commerce Group Co.

The online juggernaut that vanquished EBay and Amazon in China has set its sights on using its data and technology to transform the US$4 trillion world of domestic brick-and-mortar retail. In its biggest old-economy deal, Alibaba is leading a bid to buy department store chain Intime Retail Group Co for as much as US$2.6 billion. Its billionaire co-founder wants to build a network that will allow stores and brands to monitor transactions as they happen, ridding layers of distributors so that retail outlets can place orders online in real …