Wal-Mart buying remaining stake in China’s Yihaodian

Walmart is increasing its efforts in China’s e-commerce space after the world’s largest retailer took full ownership of Yihaodian, its online retail business in the country. It did not disclose the price paid for the stake, which was bought from former executives and financial services group Ping An.

Yu and Liu, co-founders of Yhd, announced earlier this month they had decided to leave the company. Yihaodian, founded in 2008, sells online products ranging from imported infant formula and fresh vegetables to iPhones.

Walmart Global eCommerce president and CEO Neil Ashe said: “Yihaodian has excelled as one of China’s top e-commerce businesses”.

Wang Lu, president and CEO of Walmart Global eCommerce in Asia, will head Yihaodian as part of his overall responsibilities.

“This local experience, combined with Walmart’s global sourcing and our strong local retail presence and supply chain will allow us to deliver low prices on the products customers need in new and exciting ways”, he said. About 46% of Chinese respondents already buy groceries online, compared with 25% globally, according to consultancy Nielson. It still plans to build 115 more stores by 2017. Other U.S. e-commerce players such as Amazon.com and eBay have all struggled to compete with Alibaba Group, the country’s leading online retailer.

WMT’s move came after China announced in June that it will permit complete foreign possession of few e-commerce businesses in order to encourage foreign investment and boost the competitiveness and development of the segment. Forrester estimates that strong momentum will continue and expects that China’s online retail sales will exceed $1 trillion by the end of 2019.