In China, Walmart will be in a tough environment and will be competing with the likes of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd who have cut deals to combine online and high street shopping.

In a significant development, U.S. retail giant Walmart disclosed, it plans on investing $1.2 billion (8 billion yuan) in China over the next 10 years to upgrade its logistics in the country.

In a statement, Walmart said it would “set up or renovate more than 10 logistics centers in the country”.

The development comes in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump meeting his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping over the weekend in Osaka, Japan.

Walmart has been pushing to integrate its retail network in China with the country’s burgeoning “smart retail” movement. Chinese retailers and tech giants, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd have cut deals to combine online and high street shopping.

In June 2019, Carrefour, a French retailer, agreed to sell 80% of its Chinese operations to electronics retailer Suning.com for $704 million (620 million euros).

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Tags: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Beijing, Carrefour, China, Chinese, Donald Trump, French retailer, invest, investing, logistics, logistics centers, president, retailer, smart retail, Suning.com, Tencent Holdings Ltd, U.S, United States, upgrade, Walmart, Walmart Inc, Xi Jinping