Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.com has entered into an agreement to acquire Auctiva, a third-party developer of tools for eBay sellers.

According to Alibaba.com, Auctiva currently has more than 170,000 active users. The company provides a variety of listing and marketing tools for the management of online stores. These tools are mainly designed for eBay sellers, but are also applicable on other e-commerce websites.

With the acquisition, Auctiva's platform will be integrated with AliExpress, allowing Auctiva users to connect to AliExpress via a tab on the Auctiva web-based platform. This will enable customers to easily search for suppliers, acquire merchandise and list those products on eBay through their Auctiva accounts. Exclusive promotions and special deals on AliExpress products will be available to Auctiva users.

At the same time, as a new business department of Alibaba.com, Auctiva will be operated independently and maintain its own brand.

Prior to this, Alibaba.com acquired the American e-commerce company Vendio Services in June 2010, aiming to help Chinese manufacturers enter the American retail market via the Internet by combining its AliExpress.com with Vendio.