Kroger taking Simple Truth to China

The Kroger Co. is taking its popular organic and natural store brand line, Simple Truth, to China. The Cincinnati-based grocer announced it will sell the line’s products in China on an e-commerce site owned by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Kroger will open an online storefront on Alibaba’s Tmall global site, a platform for international brands. Launched in 2014, Alibaba's Tmall Global platform is China's largest business-to-consumer marketplace for China's consumers. The platform provides brands and retailers without operations in China to build virtual storefronts and ship products into China.

Kroger's online store test will start with select Simple Truth items, which our part of its Our Brands business, providing Alibaba's more than half a billion Chinese consumers with easy access to America's largest natural and organic brand, according to a press release from Kroger.

“E-commerce enables Kroger to quickly scale to reach new customers and markets where we don't operate physical stores, starting with China," said Yael Cosset, Kroger's chief digital officer, in a statement. "We anticipate Chinese consumers will love Our Brands — starting with Simple Truth products — just like our American customers do.”

Earlier this year, Kroger announced that Simple Truth reached $2 billion in annual sales. The Simple Truth brand now offers more than 1,400 unique products across multiple categories, including grocery, meat, produce, deli, bakery, baby, household essentials, personal care and Fair Trade Certified.

"Kroger is the world's third largest retailer by revenue—$122.7 billion in sales in 2017. We are creating the grocery retail model of the future by focusing on digital and technology," Cosset added.