BEIJING, November 14 (TMTPost)— An executive of Amazon.com Inc. expressed the U.S. e-commerce giant’s ambition in the Chinese market.
Credit：Amazon Global Store
China boasts the world’s largest e-commerce market and Amazon will further expand its investment in the market in the coming year, said Samir Kumar, the Vice Present of International Consumer at Amazon, in an exclusive interview with China Central Television (CCTV). The supply chain system in China has strong advantages and rich experience in warehouse operations, Kumar told the state media.
Kumar made the remark as Amazon officially settled its first in-land bonded warehouse for Amazon Global Store in the China (Ningbo) cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone, which promoted Ningbo, a coastal city in East China’s Zhejiang province, as a national hub for cross-border e-commerce since the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party held in 2012.
As Amazon’s cross-border shopping platform for Chinese consumers, Amazon China Global Store is Amazon’s first localized shopping venue for international sales in the world, and the new bonded warehouse will allow Chinese consumers to enjoy more convenient cross-border logistics service, Kumar told CCTV. The executive said the warehouse will accommodate multiple popular categories from Amazon China Store, like healthcare, beauty care, toys, apparel and shoes. He expected the new warehouse will cut delivery times of direct international shipments for Amazon shoppers by ten days at average, with the shortest delivery being two days. Kumar also said the new facility will deeply integrate into local supply chain in China and work with more Chinese logistics firms.
With the new warehouse in Ningbo, Chinese customers will get more efficient and convenient international shipping experience and the facility will fully support Amazon’s cross-border logistics service in this year’s Black Friday shopping season starting from November 17, another state media the People’s Daily reported. The settlement of the bonded warehouse in Ningbo is Amazon’s new step to continuously double down cross-border logistic, Li Yanchuan, the Vice President of Amazon China and head of Amazon China Global Store said.
Amazon first announced its plan to locate its new bonded warehouse in Ningbo at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai in November, 2022. The company said at that time the new warehouse would allow overseas merchants to ship their goods to Ningbo and store them there in advance. The warehouse is anticipated to be first used for Amazon’s U.K. and German sites, and expand to serve goods from all the four overseas sites including U.S. and Japan sites.
Chinese merchants are ramping up their overseas expansion at Amazon’s global marketplace, 2023 Amazon Global Selling China Export Cross-border E-commerce Global Opportunities White Paper showcased. As of June, 2023, almost half of Chinese sellers conducted their deals in two or more foreign marketplaces at Amazon, and those who sold goods at the market outside the United States jumped 45% in the past 12 months, according to the white paper released by Amazon Global Selling in August. It also demonstrated the Middle East and Latin America are Chinese merchants’ favorite markets for expansion this year.
Cross-border e-commerce in China has made great strides in recent years. In the first three quarters of this year, the import and export scale of the nation's cross-border e-commerce reached RMB1.7 trillion, increasing 14.4% from a year earlier, according to General Administration of Customers of China (GACC). And out of the trade volume, the e-commerce exports stood at RMB1.3 trillion with a year-over-year increase of 17.7%, and imports rose 5.3% YoY to RMB0.4 trillion.