Alibaba took another step forward in its attempt to redraw China’s $4.5tn retail industry with a HK$19.8bn ($2.6bn) offer to take a leading domestic department store private.

The Chinese ecommerce group aims to dismantle the division between online shopping and physical stores, using big data gleaned from shoppers’ browsing and buying to improve shop layout and enabling shoppers to order online via their smartphones and then pick up the goods in-store.

As part of these efforts to blur the lines, Alibaba is now looking to buy out Hong Kong-listed department store and mall operator Intime Retail, in which it took a minority stake in 2014. It also owns a 20 per cent stake in electronics retailer Sunning, bought for $4.6bn in August 2015, and has a joint venture with appliance maker Haier.