After supermarkets, Alibaba moves into furniture

Photo credit: Benjamin Child / Unsplash

Months after placing a US$3 billion bet on a supermarket chain, China’s online shopping giant Alibaba is now moving into another side of Main Street retailing – furniture.

Alibaba is spending US$865 million to take a 15 percent stake in furniture and home decoration chain Easyhome, Jack Ma’s company announced over the weekend. Easyhome has 223 stores across China.

The deal will see Alibaba give the home furnishings retailer a “digital transformation,” it said in a statement, as well as share consumer insights and its logistics platform. It’s a partnership similar to Alibaba’s November investment in Sun Art Retail Group, which runs a series of hypermarket chains popular in China.

Getting fresh

While superficially reminiscent of Amazon’s shock Whole Foods deal, Alibaba is doing things differently from its American analog when it comes to Main Street shopping.

Alibaba – which has half a billion online shoppers – already has Hema, its groceries chain that first appeared in 2015.

When customers shop at a Hema store, their preferences are saved in its app. That makes it easier to order online and get deliveries if they prefer to do it that way next time.

GIF by Tech in Asia, from Alibaba’s video

Alibaba’s supermarkets put a lot of focus on fresh foods. It’s aliiiiive!

GIF by Tech in Asia, from Alibaba’s video

There are chefs in-store ready to cook up what you buy, which you can then eat in the canteen – as Ma (left) and Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang (center) are doing here.

Watch: In China, tech reshapes retail