Amazon's move to buy Whole Foods is not surprising and is in line with what Alibaba has already started doing in China, Alibaba's vice chair, Joseph Tsai, told CNBC on Tuesday.
"Great minds think alike," Tsai said in an interview with "Closing Bell" from the sidelines of Alibaba's Gateway conference in Detroit.
"We think that's a great move for them to get into the fresh foods category, which we have been executing on since last year."
Last week, Amazon announced it plans to acquire Whole Foods for $42 a share in a deal valued at $13.7 billion.
Tsai said in the last year Alibaba has gotten into the business of online grocery deliveries and is testing a new retail concept in urban grocery store locations.
He called it an important category for the Chinese e-commerce giant.
"It's high frequency," he said. "It brings a lot of customer loyalty to the platform. It's also in high demand, and in today's consumer market in China people are looking for high-quality foods."
—CNBC's Sarah Whitten contributed to this report.
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