A big reason many consumers shop in bricks-and-mortar stores is to try, touch and see products in person. A big Chinese retailer is revamping its stores to let consumers handle and try on products, and then purchases from an online inventory many times larger than the selection in the store.

Suning Appliance Company Ltd., which in August sold a 20% stake to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., China’s leading e-commerce company, opened its first “cloud store” in April in Shanghai. About half the store is devoted to an area where consumers can see and touch children’s and women’s apparel, imported foods and other grocery products, and then order online through iPads provided by the store or their own smartphones. Store employees also explain savings accounts and loans that Suning offers and that consumers can apply for online.

“Our stores are a key part of our omnichannel strategy because they helps us get more online traffic and offer consumers an opportunity to try products,” Suning president Zhan Jindong said in a statement. Suning’s online sales have grown 80% this year and represent a third of the retailer’s sales, he said.

Suning is No. 3 in the Internet Retailer 2015 China 500, which ranks the 500 leading retailers by their online sales in China.

Online ordering capability dramatically expands the selection available to store shoppers, a Suning spokeswoman says. She says the typical Suning store offers 20,000-30,000 items, while the retailer offers 15 million SKUs online. A typical Suning store covers about 10,000 square meters, or 108,000 square feet, just over half the size of a typical large-format Wal-Mart store in the U.S., which averages 182,000 square feet.

Suning has refitted 36 of its stores as “cloud stores” so far and aims to have 50 by the end of the year. The spokeswoman says the retailer plans to convert 600 of its 1,625 stores into this format in the next several years, at a cost of 80 million to 100 million yuan ($13 million to $16 million) to revamp each store.

As part of its strategy to marry its stores and online properties, coupons offered on Suning.com can be used in its stores. In addition, consumers can return their online order to a store, and Suning ships some online orders from its stores.

Suning also has opened an online store on Alibaba’s Tmall.com marketplace and offers Tmall.com shoppers services in its stores. 

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