SHANGHAI - Germany's Metro plans to double the number of its stores in China to more than 100 over the next three to four years to grab a bigger share of the country's growing retail market, China Business News reported on Tuesday.

Photo: Metro Group

Metro, which runs hypermarkets and consumer electronics stores in China, also launched a business-to-business online store on Monday.

"Hopefully by using e-commerce, we will be able to enlarge our customer base and increase sales," Feng Liu, an executive with Metro China, told the newspaper.

Metro, which competes with Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Carrefour SA in China's rapidly expanding but highly fragmented retail sector, had 52 stores in 37 Chinese cities at the end of 2011.

Liu told the newspaper that by launching the e-commerce platform and building a logistics network, he hopes Metro will be able to achieve a national distribution network in China.

China's hypermarket sector is forecast to grow at a compounded annual rate of 10.1 percent between 2010 and 2015, according to Euromonitor.