MADRID, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Spain's department store chain, El Corte Ingles, and China's online retail service AliExpress, announced a deal on Tuesday to expand their collaboration by selling seven of El Corte Ingles' own brands in Russia and other central European nations.
The Madrid-headquartered El Corte Ingles, the biggest department store group in Europe, confirmed the deal in a communique, saying that its seven brands, Easy Wear, Formula Joven, Green Coast, Feestyle, Boomerang, Unit and Mountain Pro, will now be sold through the AliExpress, which is owned by Alibaba, a Chinese multinational conglomerate holding company specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet and technology.
"AliExpress will put its global network of electronic commerce at the disposition of the El Corte Ingles with the aims of reaching destinations such as Russia and central European countries such as Poland in the coming months. All of this looks to promote the expansion of the Spanish company in the international market," the communique said.
"We hope we can continue to help El Corte Ingles and other companies to grow through AliExpress... Companies will have the chance to sell their products on the national and international markets and to look at new business opportunities," said William Wang, the Director General of the Alibaba Group.
Meanwhile, Eduardo Sotillos, the Purchasing Director at El Corte Ingles, said the Spanish retailer had "always worked to offer our clients the best products and services."
"The collaboration with AliExpress is a tool to help increase our online sales and to help us expand into the international market, while AliExpress will be able to take advantage of our logistics infrastructure in Spain," he said.
This accord follows an initial agreement between the Spanish and Chinese companies signed at the end of November 2018 to develop "close collaboration," in a range of fields.
El Corte ingles said this accord covered areas such as "retail sales and distribution, cloud computing services, digital innovation and payment using mobile phones," and that it included both companies' associated groups, such as "Alibaba Cloud, Alipay and AliExpress," to "take better advantage of both the physical and online worlds."
