After more than doubling its amount of physical outlets in Beijing earlier this year, fruit distributor and retailer China Fruits Corporation (OTC: CHFR) has announced plans to open its flagship store on Alibaba Group-owned Tmall in a bid to gain more consumers online.

The company has labeled the move to sell via the third-party platform as a significant step in entering the Chinese domestic e-commerce fruit market, which a release described as a "battle".

"The huge traffic and high user trust of Tmall could enable the Company to make a major breakthrough into the domestic fruit e-commerce," said CFC CEO Chen Quanlong.

"Through Tmall's mature technical platform and high quality customer service, we are now establishing [sic] basis for future branding and official website traffic attracting."

E-commerce has spread like wildfire in the Chinese fruit market, with a plethora of companies like Fruitday, Yiguo, Cityshop China and Xianguomai finding strong consumer traction. Social media app wechat has also proved an effective means for consumers to buy fresh fruits and veggies from the convenience of their cell phones.

The company also signaled plans to expand its fruit e-commerce business to leading business-to-consumer platforms like JD.com, Yhd.com and major group-buying websites, to reinforce its high quality, wide variety range and efficient delivery.

"While developing and consolidating the fruit e-commerce industrial chain, China Fruits will work in conjunction with increasing fruit retail franchise stores to introduce a "online to offline" business model for its fruit e-commerce business," the release said.

"The total number of franchise stores is expected to reach around 64 by the end of 2014, and it would continue to rise rapidly in the future.

"In addition, China Fruits plans to develop an "Online Distribution and Franchise" system in order to build a comprehensive vertical fruit e-commerce platform with major fruit participants, operators and industry bodies, which would add muscle in paving the way to future success of the Company's fruit e-commerce chain brand."

Apart from domestic goals, CFC said Alibaba's platform was also part of a critical strategy to gain access to non-Chinese markets.

Related stories: Xianguomai forges role in Chinese e-commerce produce sector

Chinese smartphone app adopts fruit sales pitch

PMA Fresh Connections China: the future of e-commerce

How China's Fruitday.com won over ClearVue partners

Chinese online fruit company cashes in on Singles' Day

The Packaging Pitch: staring at the future of retail

Photo: www.shutterstock.com

www.freshfruitportal.com