(Yicai Global) March 16 -- Tmall Supermarket, e-commerce business affiliate of China's internet behemoth Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., now provides one-hour express delivery service in 11 cities in the Chinese mainland and is expected to expand the service to 20 cities in the first half of this year, online news outlet Lieyun reported.

Tmall Supermarket has provided one-hour express delivery service in 11 cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu and Chongqing, yesterday, the report said, citing a statement from the company. It will roll out its express service to Xi'an, Shenyang, Jinan, Fuzhou and Ningbo by the end of this month.

Tmall carried out accurate Big Data operations for successful implementation of the service, while establishing cooperation with community convenience stores and building more than 200 warehouses in central districts of those cities.

At present, Tmall's one-hour express delivery service mainly covers fresh products such as fruits, snacks, dairy beverages, meat, poultry, eggs and instant and semi-finished foods.

China witnesses a rapidly growing online grocery shopping, which Alibaba Group regards as a strategic area of interest as it draws in millions of users every day. "Tmall Supermarket will draw on Alibaba Group's complete e-commerce ecosystem -- including Alibaba's advantage in logistics, strength in online payments, Big Data and cloud computing, to bring consumers the most convenient and secure online shopping experience for quality products," said a senior executive of Alibaba's China retail marketplaces unit earlier.