Walmart Stores took full control of Chinese e-commerce firm Yihaodian.com (YHD) by purchasing the balance 49% stake that it did not already own to further accelerate its online presence in the country. The company bought the stake from YHD Founders Yu Gang and Liu Junling, as well as from Ping An Insurance Group. Industry experts said the acquisition will give the U.S. retail group a clear edge over other brick-and-mortar retailers in China’s fast-growing consumer market. “YHD’s rich big data assets will help build more shopper insights for Walmart and enable it to have a successful online-and-offline strategy. Despite the fact that YHD is relatively small compared to the likes of Tmall and JD.com, it is still a key player in the online shopping for fast moving consumer goods. YHD is strong in the eastern parts and more popular with urban white collar females,” Jason Yu, General Manager of Kantar Worldpanel China said. Founded in 2008, YHD operates logistics centers in Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu, Beijing and Guangzhou.