While top Chinese retail chains like Suning Commerce Group and Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd. invest online, China’s biggest e-commerce companies increasingly are going offline to attract new consumers.

In a recent example, JD.com Inc. in the middle of June launched a store called “JD Home” inside a Wal-Mart shopping center in southern China city Shenzhen. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. owns a 12.1% stake in JD.

JD says the store will sells products selected based on the buying patterns of consumers who live nearby, and offer consumers, especially younger ones, a place to try out new products. Consumers will be able to purchase and take home with them some items, while others will be ordered from online inventory and delivered within a few hours.

JD has launched 15 “JD Home” stores in several Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, since late last year. The online retailer says major product categories in “JD Home” stores include electronics and home appliances.

JD and Wal-Mart have stepped up their cooperation across channels in the past year. Wal-Mart now  operates five branded  stores on JD.com, selling goods from Wal-Mart and its Sam’s Club warehouse unit. In JD’s June 18 anniversary sales event, Wal-Mart says it sold online 22 times more Lays Potato Chips and 13 times more Vinda Tissue products than on a normal day.

JD is not alone in its offline expansion. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. also has announced the launch of its Ideal Life Experience Center at a shopping mall in Hangzho, Alibaba’s headquarter city.

Alibaba operates 17 similar showrooms around the country designed to allow consumers to use advanced technology to learn about products available online. For example, the stores offer virtual reality gadgets that allows consumers to visualize how they would  look in articles of clothing or using various cosmetics products.  The marketplace operator says 28 global brands, including vacuum cleaner maker Dyson Inc. and athletic shoe brand Nike Inc., promote their products through these showrooms.

In the past several years, Alibaba also has invested in several Chinese retail chains and supermarket operators, including Intime Retail, a shopping-mall and department store company, and Suning, China’s top electronics and appliances store chain.

JD.com ranks No.1 of Internet Retailer China 500, Suning No. 2 and Gome No. 5. Though Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall online marketplaces account for more than 70% of online retail sales in China, the company is not ranked in the China 500 because it is a platform where other retailers sell and does not sell merchandise on its own behalf.