Not all Chinese marketplaces currently support global sellers but at ChannelAdvisor Catalyst, World First CEO Jonathan Quin told me that Amazon China is making a specific push to encourage foreign sellers to sell on their China platform.
This comes at a good time for UK SME retailers, who according to World First’s Global Trade Barometer, are expecting to do less trade internationally. With that in mind the report also reveals where international businesses are trading to including new hotspots coming up.
Amazon is a massive powerhouse of ecommerce so it’s no surprise that they’re turning their sights to the two of the biggest territories in the world – India and China. Amazon have a team approaching their top sellers in other markets through a ‘green channel’ but are also open to general applications so long as they meet certain criteria.
Requirement for sellers to sell on Amazon China
- Registered company outside mainland China (Business Registration License required)
4 steps to get ready to launch on Amazon China
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Logistic solution
This program doesn’t have FBA solution right now, and it requires the seller to ship every order directly to the end customer.
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Payment
Chinese customers pay RMB and Amazon will disburse the funds in RMB, so you need a Chinese bank account to receive the funds.
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Customer Service
Amazon will take the first line of defence in terms of calls or emails, but if the questions are about the product that the customer service is not able to answer, CS will forward an email to you.
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Catalogue Translation
The listing information of every ASIN will need to be in Chinese, and Amazon will help you with the translation for a certain number of ASINs for free.
Logistics are a relatively easy issue to send, you just speak to a courier and get rates for shipping to China. With Amazon willing to assist with customer service and translation, that just leaves the payments issue to solve and here World First can help. They recently announced their new World accounts which will be available from the summer.
One of the really good points of selling on Amazon in China, is that Jonathan explained that products achieve a higher selling price than they typically would in the UK. Chinese consumers are fed up with fakes and so it would appear they’re willing to pay a premium price for a genuine item even if it does ship from the UK. Chinese shoppers traditionally love shopping in London’s famous Regent Street and Oxford Street and their thirst for authentic Western products doesn’t diminish when they return home.
If you’re interested in selling on Amazon.cn, speak to World First to discover how they can assist you.
