BEIJING, CHINA - In today’s grocery market, retailers are doing online-offline balancing acts to improve both their brick-and-mortar and online grocery networks. This week, Walmart made moves to bolster its international network and further integrate its retail presence with tech and innovation by investing $320 million—$500 million total when combined with JD.com’s own investment—into Chinese online grocery delivery firm Dada-JD Daojia, according to a report by Reuters.

“We are confident that this deeper collaboration with Dada-JD Daojia will enhance our omni-channel footprint and deliver a better O2O (online to offline) customer experience,” said Wern-Yuen Tan, President and CEO for Walmart China.

In 2016, Walmart began its partnership with Dada-JD Daojia after investing $50 million. Today, 200 Walmart stores located across 30 major Chinese cities have a presence in JD Daojia. The news source reports that through this partnership, Walmart has been working toward integrating its retail network in China with the country’s “small retail” movement to keep up with competitors in the market, such as Alibaba and Tencent.

Partially owned by JD.com, Dada-JD Daojia consists of two businesses—operating a network of five million delivery people and providing one-hour grocery delivery services out of retail stores JD Daojia is partnered with.

Will Walmart’s latest investment bring new tech, innovations, and small retail formats into the U.S. grocery market? AndNowUKnow will continue to report on retail happenings as they relate to produce.

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