HANGZHOU - China's largest small commodity wholesale market in Yiwu, eastern Zhejiang Province, joined hands on Thursday with Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba to promote its online business.

Zhejiang China Commodities City Group Co., Ltd. and Alibaba Group inked a deal Thursday afternoon in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, to improve cooperation of the two sides in the field of e-commerce.

"The deal will take the full advantages of each side in commodity outsourcing, logistics as well as in marketing and human resources," said Jin Yonghui, director of the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province.

According to the agreement, dealers at Yiwu marketplace will be able to open online businesses at Tmall.com, a popular B2C online marketplace for high-end goods.

In the meantime, Alibaba will provide dealers at Yiwu marketplace with training programs on e-commerce.

Industry observers say the cooperation of the two sides signals the deepening and further merger of online and offline business models.

Before the signing of the agreement, more than 40 percent of dealers at Yiwu marketplace had already started their online businesses via Alibaba's popular C2C platform of Taobao.com.

In 2011, online sales revenue of Yiwu dealers at Taobao.com topped 12 billion yuan (1.9 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 23 percent of the marketplace's total sales revenue.

Zhejiang China Commodities City Group Co., Ltd. was first established in 1993 and listed at the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2002.