China’s rapidly expanding e-commerce market has caught the attention of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. Walmart has is one of six companies investing a total of $500m in 360buy.com, reportedly China’s largest online seller of consumer electronics. Walmart’s individual investment has not been made public.

Walmart, which will have around 300 stores in China when it completes its takeover of the Trustmart chain, entered the country’s e-commerce business on its own account last month. It launched www.samsclub.cn, linked to the handful of Sam’s Club discount warehouses that it operates in southern China.

The Sam’s Club site is the first to be rolled out using a new global e-commerce platform that has been under development at Walmart’s digital headquarters in San Francisco for over two years. So it would be relatively easy for the retailer to follow up with a Walmart – or Trustmart – branded parallel site, after ironing out any glitches under the smaller Sam’s Club business. Distribution, however, represents a larger challenge.