Alibaba, JD to take on supermarkets, corner stores

For China’s 720 million Internet users, websites run by the country’s two biggest e-commerce companies, Alibaba and JD.com, have increasingly become the preferred shopping destinations. From trendy clothing and exquisite accessories to household appliances and the latest tech gadgets, a mouse click can get them almost anything. Now the e-commerce behemoths are going after everyday indispensables – groceries and household items, according to Caixin. Over the past few months, both have poured hundreds of millions of yuan into a price war aimed at dragging shoppers away from supermarkets and corner stores. Amazon.com, Wal-Mart and other online retailing giants are blazing a similar trail in the US. In a 2015 letter to shareholders, Jack Ma predicted that “over 50% of China’s consumption will be conducted online within 10 years.”