Amazon's opening of a store in TMall, which is owned by rival and e-commerce giant Alibaba, is an acknowledgement on the part of the Seattle-based company that being a part of Alibaba's marketplace is the most efficient way to get e-commerce traffic in the Asian giant.

Amazon actually has a site in China, Amazon Global Store, which offers about 200,000 products from the American e-commerce giant's U.S. website. While the prices of goods in this site are the same as in the U.S., it offers local buyers a Chinese e-commerce shopping experience.

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But according to a Daiwa Capital Market report on the e-commerce industry in China, Amazon's share was only 1.3 percent in the B2C market in the third quarter of 2013, which implies a loss in market share of up to 13.8 percent compared to the same period in 2008.

In a note to a client, Bernstein analyst Carlos Kirjner explains, "It is hard to determine at this point whether this is just a small experiment or reflects a material change in strategy for Amazon in China," quotes AP.

Kirjner adds, "If Amazon has decided to work with Alibaba instead of competing with it, it may signal lowered medium term aspirations on China and hence lowered risk of large, mounting losses in the market."

China Market Research Group analyst Ben Cavender agrees with Kirjner's observation, saying, "I wonder if they are conceding the market and recognizing that it's better to work through Tmall because that's where the traffic is going

On Friday, shares of Amazon declined 1.8 percent or US$7.07 to US$380.76. But even the broader market also dipped on the same day with the Dow Jones going down by about 1.5 percent.

Amazon is not the only western company that listed on TMall. Other firms that joined the Alibaba marketplace include Inditex, Burberry and ASOS, reports Tech Times.

TagsAmazon, Tmall