Spanish department store operator El Corte Ingles is to open a flagship store on Alibaba’s Tmall as part of a broad collaborative approach to reaching Chinese consumers.

In a wide-ranging agreement, El Corte Ingles and Alibaba will enable a raft of Spanish and international brands commonly sold in El Corte Ingles department stores, to be sold worldwide via both AliExpress and Tmall.

AliExpress will consider opening a number of physical stores at El Corte Ingles shopping centres in Spain to create a unique and engaging shopping experience while promoting some of its latest products available to Spanish shoppers. This follows a trial pop-up store in the El Corte Ingles Sanchinarro shopping centre in Madrid earlier this month during Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.

El Corte Ingles and Alibaba say they will also explore closer cooperation in delivery and supply-chain infrastructure and channels, allowing Alibaba to benefit from the Spanish company’s logistics knowledge and capabilities in the country, and explore the use of its distribution centres as collection points for online purchases made through AliExpress.

Smart payments

El Corte Ingles signed an agreement with Alibaba’s Alipay in March to bring seamless payment experience to Chinese tourists visiting Spain. This may now be expanded, as El Corte Ingles and Alibaba will work on creating new shopping experiences for Chinese visitors.

El Corte Ingles CEO Victor del Pozo said the agreement will allow the two companies to combine both the physical and online worlds to offer the best shopping experience to its customers.

“Together, we are writing the future and placing ourselves at the forefront of trade and technology. El Corte Ingles owns department stores in the best locations of the main cities of Spain and Portugal, and is granted with the confidence and trust of national and international customers. All of this, joined to Alibaba’s technology, will allow us to offer a proposal of unbeatable value.”

Alibaba Group MD for Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, and BDM for Tmall in Europe, Rodrigo Cipriani Foresio, said digital transformation and innovation in all fields are fundamental drivers of Alibaba’s mission of making it easy to do business anywhere, with the ultimate goal of better serving consumers and stakeholders worldwide.

“Hence, we are confident that the expertise and skills brought by both companies will generate incredible value and opportunities as the cooperation takes shape.”

El Corte Ingles, which opened in 1940, is Europe’s largest chain of department stores.