Alibaba, China’s leading ecommerce company that is expected to list in the coming months, will invest HK$2.8bn ($364m) in Haier, the Chinese appliance maker¹, to expand its logistics and distribution network.

中国领先电子商务公司阿里巴巴(Alibaba)将向家电制造商海尔(Haier)投资28亿港元（合3.64亿美元），以扩大其物流和配送网络。预计阿里巴巴将在未来几个月上市。

The tie-up between Alibaba and Haier comes as the explosive growth of ecommerce in China is sometimes hampered² by patchy delivery logistics in the nation of 1.3bn people. The deal sent Haier’s shares in Hong Kong up 13.3 per cent yesterday.

在阿里巴巴与海尔合作之际，在这个拥有13亿人口的国家，电子商务的爆炸性增长有时会受到参差不齐的物流配送服务的影响。这笔交易促使海尔在香港的股票昨日上涨13.3%。

Most of the funds will go towards establishing a joint venture with Haier subsidiary Goodaymart, a retailer³ that has 26,000 stores and distribution sites in 2,800 counties in China. The joint venture will focus on developing a China-wide network for delivering and installing appliances and other large goods, according to a statement from the companies.

多数资金将用来与海尔子公司日日顺物流(Goodaymart)组建合资公司，日日顺物流拥有约26000个乡镇专卖店，并在全国2800多个县建立了物流配送站。两家公司的一份声明称，合资公司将关注于在全国打造一个家电及大件物品的送货及安装服务网络。

On last month’s Single’s Day – a shopping holiday promoted by Alibaba – the ecommerce group sold $5.7bn worth of goods. The US’s Cyber Monday after Thanksgiving this year had just $1.7bn spent on desktop⁴ online shopping, according to ComScore. In total last year, Alibaba’s multiple online platforms handled $171bn worth of orders.

在今年的11月11日，阿里巴巴集团销售了价值57亿美元的商品。这个双11购物节是由阿里巴巴倡导的。根据ComScore的数据，美国今年感恩节过后的网购星期一(Cyber Monday)的在线交易额仅为17亿美元。去年整整一年，阿里巴巴的多个在线平台处理了价值1710亿美元的订单。

Although Alibaba is an online platform for other companies to sell goods and does not stock any products itself, it works with brands such as Haier that sell on its online sites, which include Tmall and Taobao. Before Single’s Day, Alibaba employees visited sellers and logistics companies to check that they had enough capacity to handle the orders expected.

尽管阿里巴巴是一个让其他公司销售商品的在线平台，本身没有任何商品存货，但该公司与海尔等在其网站——包括天猫(Tmall)和淘宝(Taobao)——销售商品的品牌合作。在双11之前，阿里巴巴员工曾参观卖家和物流企业，查看他们是否有足够的能力处理预期的订单。