Amazon shakes hands with its Chinese rivals

Amazon China currently offers same-day and next-day delivery services in more than 1,400 cities and counties in China, as well as more than 5,000 self-pickup locations.

This shopfront will be Amazon's second business-to-consumer platform as the Seattle-based company will continue operating its own e-commerce site in China.

The move to cooperate with Tmall is not that surprising given the fact that last year Amazon already started experimenting with the platform to sell its Kindle e-book reader.

Amazon made its first incursion into China in August 2004 through the acquisition of Joyo.com, an online retailer of books, music and videos. In 2011, the website was renamed amazon.cn.

Marketplace Tmall has also attracted several Western retailers, such as Britain's Burberry and ASOS and Spain's Inditex brands, to join the shopping platform to reach more Chinese customers. Tmall and Taobao have 334 million active buyers, according to Alibaba's official blog Alizila.

Burying the hatchet in the Chinese market will allow both companies to improve their strengths. Alibaba mainly sells local brands but it is gradually increasing the number of foreign goods it offers. Meanwhile, Amazon takes pride in itself hosting the largest selection of international brands among the online retailers in China.

"I do not rule out the possibility of Amazon also cooperating in the future with JD.com. But cooperation between these two companies will depend on the development of the domestic market and the partnership with Tmall", said Wang Xiaoxing, an analyst at Analysys International.

"Amazon's launch on Tmall will broaden Tmall's selection of imported brands", said Janet Wang, director of Tmall's international business development.

As Chinese major online retailers, Tmall and JD.com are expected to continue dominating the e-commerce market in the coming years amid efforts in mobile investments and customer services, said consulting firm Forrester Research in January.

China became the world's largest e-commerce market in 2013 with an online spending of $307 billion, said Forrester.