Alibaba in payment partnership with Walmart

A receptionist works at Alipay's headquarters in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, in this Jan 10, 2014 file photo. [Photo/Xinhua]

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's financial affiliate announced a partnership with Walmart on Wednesday, the latest move to expand its offline businesses by teaming up with retailers.

Twenty-five Walmart stores in Shenzhen will allow customers to pay bills through Alipay payment services, said Zhejiang Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group Co Ltd, owner of Alipay which has over 270 million monthly active users.

The service will be gradually expanded to all Walmart outlets in China, the company said in an e-mailed statement.

When customers make purchases through Alipay, they can finish the transaction in few seconds after the system automatically calculates the bill and clerks scan the bar code in users' Alipay account.

Currently, the mobile payment service is already operational in Carrefour stores in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. Besides, more than 1,000 supermarkets and stores owned by China Resources Vanguard Co Ltd can also accept Alipay as payment tool.

Earlier, Alibaba's biggest rival Tencent Holdings Ltd also established comprehensive cooperation with Carrefour China. Consumers could use Wechat Wallet to pay their bills in 237 Carrefour China outlets.

Walmart's customers in China shrank by 5.7 percent year on year in 2014. The retailer owns more than 410 outlets across the country.

China's mobile payment market is rising, with the transaction volume on third-party platforms exceeding 7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) last year, according to a report by consultancy Analysys International.

Xinhua contributede to this story.