Taobao Mall, Alibaba Group's business-to-consumer shopping site, forecasts transactions may reach 100 billion yuan (US$15.6 billion) this year and double to 200 billion yuan in 2012.
Taobao Mall Monday unveiled 38 domestic independent online retailers, including online department store Yihaodian.com and consumer electronics retailer 51buy.com, on the B2C site as it bids to transform into a comprehensive shopping platform.
"Taobao Mall will not become a retailer itself and we welcome all kinds of service providers, brand owners and logistics companies to contribute to the shopping platform," Zhang Yong, president of Taobao Mall, said in Beijing Monday.
In the second quarter, Taobao Mall took 32.8 percent share of the domestic B2C market, whose transaction volume was worth 54.3 billion yuan, according to research firm Analysys International.
Consumers can access over 70,000 brands and 50,000 retailers on Taobao Mall.
Liu Guanwu, chief analyst at Analysys International's capital market division, said: "Independent B2C sites will see their sales rise as they benefit from the huge user base of Taobao Mall."
Alibaba Group in June split its e-commerce business into three units - consumer-to-consumer site Taobao.com, branded retailer site Taobao Mall and search engine ETao. The split allows the three units to focus on their own business and adapt faster to changing market conditions.
