Alibaba Group's chairman Jack Ma and Apple's chief executive officer Tim Cook jointly announced last week that Alibaba and Apple will work together on payment services.

Apple Pay plans to enter the Chinese market via Alipay and become a payment method for Chinese Apple users. But more importantly, Apple will help Alipay to expand into the international market.

In the future, major U.S. department stores like Kohls, Macys and Dillards will be able to support payment via Alipay. In addition, those three department store companies will become the import partners of Alibaba to provide products to Chinese consumers through channels on Alibaba.

Ma revealed during the announcement that imports of goods will be an important part of Alibaba's overseas strategy and China can import a lot of things from America.

In mid-October, Alibaba announced a strategic deal with Costco. With the cooperation, Costco will open a flagship store on Tmall.com, Alibaba's B2C e-commerce site, and provide Chinese consumers with food and health products.

Financial terms of the Apple and Alibaba deal were not released.