Feb. 24 (NBD) -- Chinese tech behemoth Tencent Holdings Ltd., and ecommerce giant JD.com agreed to buy a combined 11 percent stake in a Chinese retail chain, Better Life Commercial Chain Share Co Ltd. (Better Life), a move to enhance their presence in the retail sector.

A Tencent subsidiary, is buying a 6 percent stake in the Shenzhen-listed retail store operator Better Life for 887 million yuan (139.7 million U.S. dollars), Better Life said in a filing on Saturday.

According to the same filing, JD.com will pay a sum of 739 million yuan (116.4 million U.S. dollars) for a 5 percent stake in Better Life.

Better Life is to resume trading next Monday.

NBD noticed that these three parties have also forged a strategic cooperation relationship, aiming to develop smart retail and unbounded retail in joint force and is regarded as a strategic deployment to compete with their rival Alibaba and its allies.

It's noticed that over the past several months, Tencent has joined hands with JD.com to battle Alibaba in the retail space through making investments in online discount retailer Vipshop, French multinational retailer Carrefour SA's China unit, Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties and Chinese menswear group Heilan Home Co Ltd.

An industry insider who kept following Tencent's investments regarded those moves as an attempt to come into spotlight, which empowers the company to have more initiatives at hands instead of making indirect investments in the retail field via buying shares in JD.com and Chinese department store operator Yonghui.

Under the framework agreement inked by Tencent, JD.com and Better Life, Better life will leverage mini programs and the official account on the Wechat platform operated by Tencent in order to harness online traffic. At the same time, the department retail operator will also take advantage of JD.com's home delivery services, giving full play to the ecommerce giant's strengths in online operation, logistics performance and product digitalization.

Wang Liyang, an Internet analyst, said to NBD that the cooperation of these three parties will enable Better Life to have access to the online traffic resources offered by Tencent and JD.com. The integration of online and offline resources and channels will benefit Better Life in expanding brick-and-mortar stores, reducing costs and increasing sales, Wang added.

For Tencent, the company wants to fully tap its resources in the retail industry which encompasses the abundant traffic flowing on its social and content platforms and its technological capacities in big data and artificial intelligence. Better life, a retailer which possesses shopping centers, supermarkets, convenience stores, department stores, "catering services plus retail" and other types of business, is able to provide diversified retail scenarios and ecosystems for Tencent.

Against such background, some industry insiders believed that in the area of technological innovation in offline businesses, Tencent, JD.com and Better Life will work together to explore the application of image recognition, artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies in offline business scenarios.

Some industry insiders predicted that Tencent is likely to search for means to increase the industry value and reshape the value chain of the retail sector through utilizing Better Life's multi-scenario business system.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn