With help from Alibaba, Costco comes to China – but only online

US retailer Costco is entering China today for the first time. But the membership-only warehouse chain is not opening any physical shops in the country. Instead it’s partnering with Alibaba’s Tmall marketplace to open a storefront for shoppers in mainland China. It’s targeting an ecommerce market in China that’s worth an estimated US$275 billion this year.

The new Costco Tmall store sells a selection of the retail giant’s foods and household items. Today’s announcement points out that with help from “Alibaba’s expertise in big data, Costco will carefully select the most suitable products and brands for its consumers in China.”

Costco has 663 locations around the world, 468 of which are in the US. Elsewhere in Asia it has opened physical stores in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

As part of the Alibaba tie-up, Costco may also sell items via the ecommerce titan’s daily deals site.

Costco’s closest rival, Walmart-owned Sam’s Club, is doing things differently, and already has 10 brick-and-mortar stores across China at present, with more in the pipeline.

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