Chinese Internet giant Alibaba is to pay 28.3 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) for a near-20 percent stake in consumer electronics retailer Suning, the two companies said in a statement Monday. At the same time the Chinese shopping chain will invest up to 14 billion yuan for just over one percent of Alibaba, the statement said, bringing the total value of the deal to nearly $7 billion.

It will make Alibaba the second-largest shareholder in Suning, the statement said, adding the two firms would embark on a "strategic collaboration" that would "bring benefits to hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers" and marked "a milestone that signals the further integration of digital and offline retail".

Suning is one of China's biggest consumer electronics retailers, while Alibaba's Tmall.com site is believed to command more than half the Chinese market for business-to-consumer transactions.