The move to take a 72% holding in SunArt tightens Alibaba’s grip on China’s vast e-commerce sector as it looks to soak up the new customers pushed online to buy groceries, fresh food and healthcare products by the coronavirus.

It also hands over control of 13 million sqm of retail space in scores of cities across the country.

SunArt was created by Auchan in 2000 with Ruentex Group and joined in an “alliance” with Alibaba in 2017.

That tie-in gave the Chinese firm ownership of around a third of the hypermaket company.

Alibaba quickly set about transforming SunArt from a traditional bricks-and-mortar hypermarket to an online groceries hub, matching its wider e-commerce goods business.

“SunArt has made significant progress in the digital transformation,” Alibaba said in a statement Monday announcing its US$3.6 billion investment.

The supermarket chain has since been “leveraging resources and technology from the Alibaba ecosystem.”

The buyout of SunArt will boost a promise to deliver groceries within 30-60 minutes of being ordered over Alibaba’s Tmall platform, the statement added.