China's Alibaba to Surpass Walmart Sales Volume in Two Years

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said its online sales volume would exceed the global sales volume of US retail giant Walmart in two years.

"Within two years, the online retail volume of Alibaba will exceed the sales of Walmart," Xinhua news agency quoted Alibaba's president Jin Jianhang as saying at a global e-commerce summit in east China's Hangzhou city.

In the first half of 2014, Alibaba's total trading volume reached 931bn yuan ($151bn, £94bn, €120bn). Its trading volume in the second quarter hit 501bn yuan, up 45% year on year.

In 2013, Alibaba reported a gross merchandise volume of $248bn on its three major trading platforms, more than the combined volume of its US rivals eBay and Amazon.com.

After completing its mammoth IPO in the US, the e-commerce company is looking for a multi-faceted expansion. The company's plan involves reaching billions of consumers within China and expanding its presence across the globe.

It recently announced plans to expand its reach across borders by upgrading its upcoming 11 November shopping festival into a global online shopping carnival.

In addition, the company plans to invest 10bn yuan within three to five years to build thousands of facilities in rural China to tap rising demand in these areas.

For the year ending on 31 January 2014, Walmart reported total sales of $476bn, the largest in the world. The retailer also reported combined revenues of about $235bn for its first two quarters of 2014.