Amazon China will shut down it’s local retail operations and marketplace in China according to Bloomberg. Amazon have thrown in the towel in China and not only will local selling shut, but also their third party marketplace meaning that sellers will no longer be able to market to Chinese consumers on a local Amazon China site.
Amazon are not entirely turning their back on China. They have seen massive success in bringing products from Chinese sellers to the West and this will continue. Amazon China will focus entirely on supporting and building Chinese brands and assisting them to sell in Europe and the Americas.
“At present, cross-border ecommerce has become one of the new engines for China’s foreign trade development. Relying on Amazon’s global resource advantages and localized professional services, Amazon’s global store provides effective support for Chinese companies to explore global business opportunities and build international brands.”
– Amazon
Chinese consumers will also still be able to purchase on Amazon but through the Amazon Global Store rather than on Amazon China. Consumers in China are increasingly interested in Western brands and are willing to pay for them, so ensure that your products listed on Amazon’s Western marketplaces include shipping to China for the future.
“Over the past few years, we have been evolving our China online retail business to increasingly emphasise cross-border sales, and in return we’ve seen very strong response from Chinese customers. Their demand for high-quality, authentic goods from around the world continues to grow rapidly, and given our global presence, Amazon is well-positioned to serve them.”
– Amazon Statement
This is really a direct result of the strength of Chinese marketplaces, the biggest of which are Alibaba and JD.com. Here in the West we may view Amazon as a behemoth of online shopping, but in reality in China they are dwarfed by the size of the home grown Chinese marketplaces.
Amazon won’t disappear entirely from mainland China – they will still maintain their cloud computing AWS services as well as Kindle devices and content.
2 Responses
Poor Jeff 🙁
Love how they failed themselves in China, but still expect to grow there Chinese FBA business to allow Chinese sellers access to water markets. Despite massive market place abuse.