E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings announced on Monday to invest 3.6 billion U.S. dollars in China's top hypermarket operator-- Sun Art Retail Group in an effort to expand its reach in China's retail market.

Alibaba is boosting its stake in Sun Art to around 72 percent by acquiring a similar stake in A-RT Retail Holdings valued at approximately HK$28 billion ($3.6 billion). A-RT owns 51 percent of Sun Art.

Alibaba said the move is to further integrate online and offline resources in China's retail sector. It bought 36.2 percent stake in Sun Art for 2.9 billion dollars in 2017. It praised Sun Art for making "significant progress" in the digital transformation of the stores in the past three years.

As of June this year, Sun Art operates 481 hypermarkets and three mid-size supermarkets in China. Alibaba said that all its physical stores in China have been integrated into its Taoxianda and Tmall Supermarket platforms, providing one-hour and half-day on-demand delivery.

"As the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the digitization of consumer lifestyles and enterprise operations, this commitment to Sun Art serves to strengthen our New Retail vision and serve more consumers with a fully integrated experience," Daniel Zhang, chairman and CEO of Alibaba, said in a statement.

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(Cover via CFP)