Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    WALMART on Friday launched a flagship store of its warehouse retail business Sam’s Club as well as a store for imported products on JD.com Inc.’s platform, a further step to extend its tie-ups with Chinese online players to help boost sales in the world’s second-largest economy.

    The world’s largest retailer also said Friday that it will invest US$50 million in Chinese online grocery and delivery firm New Dada, which is a joint venture part-owned by JD.com.

    Walmart started cooperation with JD.com in June when it sold its own online platform Yihaodian in exchange for a 5-percent stake in China’s second-largest e-commerce company.

    Walmart’s global import store launched Friday on JD Worldwide gives Chinese customers access to products imported by Walmart from its stores around the world. For the Sam’s Club flagship store, Walmart said it would stock merchandise in JD’s warehouses and use JD’s same and next-day delivery services.

    Walmart also started a two-hour delivery service from its stores in select Chinese cities Thursday for orders placed on JD Daojia, JD.com’s grocery business. The delivery service will be available from more than 20 Walmart stores in China, and the number of stores is expected to double by the end of the year.

    Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said that globally, the company is working to create seamless shopping experiences that bring together its stores, sites and apps to make shopping faster and easier.

    “Our alliance with JD and cooperation with New Dada will enable seamless shopping to millions of customers across China,” he said.

    New Dada has more than 25 million registered customers and delivers in more than 300 Chinese cities.