Amazon relishes Black Friday bonanza
Vibrant purchasing power lifts China’s foreign trade
NEW YORK: United States tech company Amazon is looking to capitalise on the Black Friday shopping carnival from Chinese buyers, according industry experts.
They said young Chinese consumers have demonstrated vibrant purchasing power for diversified and personalised overseas products via cross-border ecommerce platforms.
“China’s cross-border ecommerce sector has been growing exponentially over the past few years and has played an important role in stabilising foreign trade amid the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Li Yanchuan, head of Amazon China Global Store and Prime.
He added that he is bullish on the prospects of the cross-border online shopping market.
Li noted that the sales of fishing, skiing, camping and other outdoor sports products have witnessed rapid growth.
He said virtual reality equipment, handdrip coffee products, and tableware and kitchen utensils with unique designs have also been increasingly favoured by Chinese shoppers in recent years.
Amazon kicked off this year’s Black Friday shopping festival last Friday, promising to offer steep discounts on nearly two million authentic products covering about 20,000 international brands from four sites in the US, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany.
It has also sped up logistics and delivery operations.
In addition, Amazon Global Store has announced that its first front-end bonded warehouse will be settled in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, in 2023 to better serve the consumption demand of Chinese consumers for imported products.
Li said the launch of the bonded warehouse is expected to shorten the delivery time by four to five days on average, compared with direct delivery from overseas.
“More new overseas categories, such as pet food and alcohol, will be introduced to the front-end bonded warehouse in Ningbo.”
Although the pandemic had an impact on international logistics in the first half, the most difficult period has passed and the logistics
segment is recovering in the third quarter, Li added.
China became the largest market among all worldwide Amazon Global Store businesses in 2021, with sales surging more than nine fold compared with 2015.
The transaction volume during last year’s Black Friday shopping spree saw an over 50% increase year-on-year, according to Amazon.
The company has also stepped up its localisation push in China by launching its Wechat mini programme in 2019, which is specially designed to build a social commerce experience for Chinese consumers and covers fields like live streaming, social networks and content.
It will launch a group-buying function within its Wechat mini programme during the Black Friday promotional gala and
strengthen cooperation with key opinion leaders, Li said.
Statistics from the General Administration of Customs showed the import and export value of China’s cross-border ecommerce sector reached 1.98 trillion yuan (RM1.27 trillion) in 2021, up 15% year-on-year.
The country has stepped up efforts to boost the development of new forms and models of foreign trade.
“As a new form of foreign trade, cross-border ecommerce has witnessed rapid growth during the Covid-19 pandemic and become an important driving force for stabilising China’s foreign trade,” said Zhang Zhouping, a senior analyst on business-to-business and cross-border activities at the Internet Economy Institute, a domestic consultancy. — China Daily/ann