China's online retail company JD.com is going offline but not for the reason you think.

JD is planning to enter the convenience store market by integrating its online sales with that of actual convenience stores.

Chief Operating Officer Shen Haoyu announced on Monday that JD will partner with 15 companies that operate networks of 11,000 chain stores nationwide.

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The mutually beneficial set up will allow partner convenience stores to benefit from JD's logistics system, while JD can widen its customer base in all areas where the convenience stores are located.

Simply put, the partner convenience stores can virtually set up shop on JD.com and customers can pick up their online orders from store branches nationwide, or else have JD speed-deliver the goods to their doorsteps for a fee.

JD.com has 25 million users, 82 warehouses, 6,000 suppliers and nearly 1,500 delivery terminals across China.

The convenience store market, on the other hand, has steadily posted fast-growing sales volumes.

The integration of these online and offline retail businesses no doubt brings JD at the forefront of a very promising convergent retail market, according to business analysts.

The online retail business grew to more than 1.8 trillion yuan (293 billion U.S. dollars) last year, a 42.8 percent year-on-year increase.