GOME said in a statement it will be a major retailer of consumer electronics and home appliances on Amazon's mainland marketplace, Z.cn, with services initially covering Beijing, and then major first- and second-tier cities later this year.

The Chinese home appliances company operates 1,800 offline stores across China.

Last August, Alibaba Group said it would invest $4.6 billion in leading Chinese electronics retailer Suning Commerce Group Co Ltd, as part of the same trend of bringing together online and store-based shopping.

(Reporting by Donny Kwok and Twinnie Siu; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)