Kroger Co. is expanding into China through an agreement to sell groceries on Alibaba Group Holding’s online retail site.
Starting Wednesday, Kroger will sell such products as dietary supplements and private-label natural and organic products on Alibaba’s Tmall Global site, The Wall Street Journal reports.
This marks Kroger’s first foray overseas, though not its first e-commerce venture; the grocery giant sells its Simple Truth natural products through the Vitacost.com site it acquired in 2014.
Alibaba is China's version of Amazon
Kroger, which operates about 2,800 stores in the U.S., has also been exploring other markets. Its executives are studying consumer habits in Europe, India and Japan, the newspaper says. In May Kroger acquired a stake in Britain’s Ocado Group online grocery concept, and it is also testing automated grocery delivery systems in a venture with electric-vehicle company Nuro Inc.
By Edmund Mander
Director, Editor-In-Chief/SCT
